The western Ordos Plateau is a key area of shrub diversity and a National Nature Reserve of endangered shrub species in north-west China. Desert expansion is becoming the most important threat to these endangered species. However, little is known about the effects of sand burial on the dynamics of the shrub community. This study aims to investigate how the shrubs as a community and as different...

Time series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from multiple satellite sensors are crucial data to study vegetation dynamics. The Land Long Term Data Record Version 4 (LTDR V4) NDVI dataset was recently released at a 0.05 × 0.05° spatial resolution and daily temporal resolution. In this study, annual NDVI time series that are composited by the LTDR V4 and Moderate Resoluti...

Biological soil crusts are diverse assemblages of bacteria, cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, lichens, and mosses that cover much of arid land soils. The objective of this study was to quantify protozoa associated with biological soil crusts and test the response of protozoa to increased temperature and precipitation as is predicted by some global climate models. Protozoa were more abundant when ass...

In arid and semi-arid grassland, many models hypothesize that desertification leads to the replacement of grassland by shrubland vegetation; however, the theoretical interpretations are open to debate. Therefore, a field study was conducted in the Guinan desertified grassland of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, North-west China, to test the hypotheses on a regional scale. We used four field sites to ...

Desert vegetation plays significant roles in securing the ecological integrity of oasis ecosystems in western China. Timely monitoring of photosynthetic/non-photosynthetic desert vegetation cover is necessary to guide management practices on land desertification and research into the mechanisms driving vegetation recession. In this study, nonlinear spectral mixture effects for photosynthetic/no...

Aeolian dust is closely related to land degradation, desertification, and sand storm weather, a significant factor influencing the Earth's biogeochemical cycles. Here we present an investigation of recent synoptic features atmospheric in China analyze its spatiotemporal change based upon meteorological observation data satellite products. It shows that aeolian frequency has decreased gradually ...

[1] Seasonal variations in background aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aerosol type are investigated over various ecosystems in China based upon three years’ worth of meteorological data and data collected by the Chinese Sun Hazemeter Network. In most parts of China, AODs are at a maximum in spring or summer and at a minimum in autumn or winter. Minimum values (0.10∼0.20) of annual mean AOD at 5...

Vegetation light use efficiency (LUE) is a key parameter of Production Efficiency Models (PEMs) for simulating gross primary production (GPP) of vegetation, from regional to global scales. Previous studies suggest that grasslands have the largest inter-site variation of LUE and controlling factors of grassland LUE differ from those of other biomes, since grasslands are usually water-limited eco...

[1] This study is concerned with the quantitative prediction of dust storms in real time. An integrated wind erosion modeling system is used for 24-, 48-, and 72-hour forecasts of northeast Asian dust events for March and April 2002. The predictions are validated with synoptic records from the meteorological network and dust concentration measurements at 12 stations in China, Japan, and Korea. ...