Abstract
Planting trees was used as one of cost-effective measures for desertification control in arid and semi-arid areas of China. Woodland degradation, however, is becoming an inevitable issue in these areas. In this paper, a typical county, Ejin Holo County, Inner Mongolia, China was selected for its assessment of artificial woodland degradation. A conceptual model for woodland degradation was delineated qualitatively based on field sampling survey, and four model-based indicators as humidity index (HI), vegetation index (NDVI), soil type (ST) and soil erosion modulus (EM) were screened out and used to a GIS-based method for artificial woodland degradation assessment in this semi-arid agro-pastoral transitional area. All the indicator layers were overlaid and desertification assessed using simplified equation with equal weights for each indicators. The assessment results showed that in 336.09 km2 of total woodland area, 311.35 km2 woodland were under degradation, and the area for slight, medium, severe degradation was 78.97, 119.73 and 112.65 km2, respectively. It was suggested that much attention should be paid on woodland improvement and plant species selection, especially shrub species, before revegetation in similar areas.
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Foundation project: This paper is funded by National Natural Science Fund (30171205) and National Tenth-year-plan Key Sci&tech Project (2005BA517A04)
Biography: YANG Xiao-hui (1968–), male, PH.D. in landscape ecology and desertification combating, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 10091, P.R. China
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Yang, Xh., Ci, Lj. & Zhang, Kb. Artificial woodland degradation in semi-arid agro-pastoral transitional area: conceptual model and status assessment. J. of For. Res. 17, 193–196 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-006-0045-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-006-0045-x