Rocky desertification and its causes in karst areas: a case study in Yongshun County,Hunan Province,China |
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| Authors: | Y?J?Xiong Email author" target="_blank">G?Y?QiuEmail author D?K?Mo H?Lin H?Sun Q?X?Wang S?H?Zhao J?Yin |
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| Institution: | (1) College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Xinjiekouwai St. 19th, 100875 Beijing, People’s Republic of China;(2) State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, 100875 Beijing, People’s Republic of China;(3) Research Center of Forestry Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Shaoshan Road 498th, 410004 Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China;(4) Asia Water Environment Section, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, 305-8506 Tsukuba, Japan |
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| Abstract: | Rocky desertification, a process of land degradation characterized by soil erosion and bedrock exposure, is one of the most
serious land degradation problems in karst areas, and is regarded as an obstacle to local sustainable development. It is well
known that human activities can accelerate rocky desertification; however, the effects of climate change on rocky desertification
in karst areas are still unclear. This study focused on the effects of temperature and precipitation changes and human activities
on rocky desertification in karst areas to determine the impacts of climate change and human disturbances on rocky desertification.
Areas of different level of rocky desertification were obtained from Landsat TM (1987) and Landsat ETM+ (2000) images. The
results show that, although the total desertification area increased by only 1.27% between 1987 and 2000, 17.73% of the slightly
desertified land had degraded to a moderate or intense level, 2.01 and 15.71%, respectively. Meanwhile, between 1987 and 2000,
the air temperature increased by 0.7°C, and precipitation increased by 170 mm. Statistical results indicate that the increase
in precipitation was caused by heavy rainfall. In addition, under the interactive influences of heavy rainfall and temperature,
the average karst dissolution rate was about 87 m3 km−2 a−1 during the 14 years in the study area. Further analysis indicated that rocky desertification was positively related with
the increase in temperature and precipitation and especially with the heavy rainfall events. Climate change accelerated rocky
desertification in the karst areas.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
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| Keywords: | Remote sensing Karst rocky desertification Temperature Heavy rainfall |
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