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The arid valley is a unique type of ecological fragile landscape in the Hengduan Mountain Area, China. The boundary of the arid valley is one of the response indicators to mountainous climate change. Based on the meteorological data from 1999 to 2013 and the SPOT remote sensing images in 1999 and 2013 this study explored the response characteristics of the arid valley boundary to regional climate change in the upper reaches of the Min River in the Hengduan Mountains. The results are as follows: (1) During 1999–2013, the temperature, precipitation, and evaporation increased, and the sunshine duration and relative humidity showed decreasing trends at the rates of 0.008 °C/a, 2.25 mm/a, 5.51 mm/a, −8.72 h/a, and −0.19%/a, respectively. Meanwhile, the climate showed the warm-dry tendency in the southern region and the warm-humid tendency in the central and northern areas. (2) On the whole, the arid valley boundary mainly distributed between 1601–3200 m and moved downward to 2428 m at the speed of −0.76 ± 0.26 m/a along with global warming. The descent speeds in different regions showed the same decreasing order as the regional distributions of precipitation and sunshine duration. (3) The arid valley boundary’s displacement in the whole basin had significant negative correlations with current climate change (p < 0.05), as well as with variations of moisture factors. Additionally, with the enhancements of the drought degree and humidity tendency, the variations of temperature, evaporation, and relative humidity, respectively, became the main factors that had significant correlations with the arid valley boundary’s displacement. Therefore, climate change during 1999–2013 shows beneficial effects on the improvement of the arid valley habitat in the upper reaches of the Min River. The study provides a new method and gives basic data for research on climate change.
Yalin Guo; Qing Wang; Min Fan. Exploring the Relationship between the Arid Valley Boundary’s Displacement and Climate Change during 1999–2013 in the Upper Reaches of the Min River, China. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 2017, 6, 146 .
AMA StyleYalin Guo, Qing Wang, Min Fan. Exploring the Relationship between the Arid Valley Boundary’s Displacement and Climate Change during 1999–2013 in the Upper Reaches of the Min River, China. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 2017; 6 (5):146.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYalin Guo; Qing Wang; Min Fan. 2017. "Exploring the Relationship between the Arid Valley Boundary’s Displacement and Climate Change during 1999–2013 in the Upper Reaches of the Min River, China." ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 6, no. 5: 146.
Habitat richness influences and even determines biological diversity. Plant habitat suitability assessment can provide technical guidance and information support for ecological restoration. Thirteen factors in three categories of terrain, meteorology and soil were chosen to build a habitat suitability assessment index framework in the Upper Reaches of the Min River, based on the local natural environment and the actual influencing factors of vegetative growth. Combined with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and entropy method, which were used to calculate weights of indexes, habitat suitability was studied by using a multi-objective linear weighting model and geographic information systems (GIS) spatial analysis techniques. The assessment results are as follows: Altitude, soil stability, aspect and slope have more important effects on plant habitat suitability in the Upper Reaches of the Min River, and their weights are 0.311, 0.260, 0.198 and 0.125, respectively. Suitable and sub-suitable habitats cover 4431.80 km2 and 6171.12 km2, respectively; most of which are distributed along both sides of rivers and have higher suitability. Unsuitable habitats cover the largest area (6679.76 km2), accounting for 29.83% of the whole area; and the worst unsuitable habitats are 5107.23 km2 (22.81%); they account for more than half of the study area. These results indicate that the plant habitat in the Upper Reaches of the Min River is poor and ecological restoration is both urgent and difficult. Therefore, based on the principle of taking measures suitable to the habitat in ecological restoration projects, ecological and engineering measures should be combined to have better effects, while increasing the strength of ecological protection.
Ya-Lin Guo; Qing Wang; Wei-Po Yan; Qin Zhou; Min-Qiu Shi. Assessment of habitat suitability in the Upper Reaches of the Min River in China. Journal of Mountain Science 2015, 12, 737 -746.
AMA StyleYa-Lin Guo, Qing Wang, Wei-Po Yan, Qin Zhou, Min-Qiu Shi. Assessment of habitat suitability in the Upper Reaches of the Min River in China. Journal of Mountain Science. 2015; 12 (3):737-746.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Lin Guo; Qing Wang; Wei-Po Yan; Qin Zhou; Min-Qiu Shi. 2015. "Assessment of habitat suitability in the Upper Reaches of the Min River in China." Journal of Mountain Science 12, no. 3: 737-746.