SWAT‐LUT: A Desktop Graphical User Interface for Updating Land Use in SWAT

Long‐term simulations of agricultural watersheds have often been done assuming constant land use over time, but this is not a realistic assumption for many agricultural regions. This paper presents the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT)‐Landuse Update Tool (LUT), a standalone, user‐friendly desktop‐based tool for updating land use in the SWAT model that allows users to process multi‐year land use data. SWAT‐LUT is compatible with several SWAT model interfaces, provides users with several options to easily prepare and incorporate land use changes (LUCs) over a simulation period, and allows users to incorporate past or emerging land use categories. Incorporation of LUCs is expected to provide realistic model parameterization and scenario simulations. SWAT‐LUT is a public domain interface written in Python programming language. Two applications at the Fort Cobb Reservoir Experimental Watershed located in Oklahoma and pertinent results are provided to demonstrate its use. Incorporating LUCs related to implementation of recommended conservation practices over the years reduced discharge, evapotranspiration, sediment, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus loads by 59%, 9%, 68%, 53%, and 88%, respectively. The user’s manual is included in this article as Supporting Information. The SWAT‐LUT executable file and an example SWAT project with three land use rasters and the user’s manual are available at the United States Department of Agriculture‐Agricultural Research Service Grazinglands Research Laboratory website under Software. Editor’s note : This paper is part of the featured series on Optimizing Ogallala Aquifer Water Use to Sustain Food Systems. See the February 2019 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

上海市生态用地属性与空气负离子浓度的关联性

空气负离子具有杀菌、降尘、清洁空气的功效,能够表征环境空气的清洁度.为探明上海市生态用地空气负离子浓度的分布特征,便于人们休闲游憩,选择24个上海市生态核查样区,在植被最为茂盛的夏季进行空气离子浓度监测(离子迁移率为0.4 cm2/(V· s)),共获得正、负离子现场监测数据各21 600个,研究生态用地属性与空气负离子浓度的关系.结果表明:外环以内生态用地负离子浓度总体低于外环以外,内陆地区总体低于临海地区,上海植物园最低,海湾森林公园最高;除东平森林公园外,其他生态用地空气负离子浓度均大于正离子浓度;市区的共青森林公园、世纪公园,郊区的余山森林公园、金山岛自然保护区等8个样区CI均大于1,空气清洁度为A,最清洁;负离子浓度与植被覆盖度、LAI总体没有明显相关性,但在同一样区3个样方植被覆盖度相差大于等于0.10或LAI相差大于等于1的地区,负离子与植被覆盖度、LAI呈正相关性;负离子与温度呈负相关,不具备显著性,与相对湿度呈明显的正相关性.     

不同土地利用/覆盖情景下东北沟流域植被生态需水量及其对产流影响

针对京津水源区上游生态环境建设需水与向下游多输水的矛盾现实,基于气象、土壤、土地利用/覆盖(1990年和2009年)数据,应用Penman-Monteith公式估算潜在蒸散量,再用土壤和植被信息对其进行修正,计算了水源区东北沟流域1990年、2009年及其他5种不同土地利用/覆盖情景下的最小生态需水量和适宜生态需水量。结果表明:2005-2009年4-10月潜在蒸散量是715.04 mm;2009年流域植被适宜生态需水量是399.42 mm,最小生态需水量是339.68 mm,比1990年的适宜和最小量分别多122.5 mm、144.5 mm;平水年的降雨均可满足各种情景生态需水要求,其中需水量较大的是情景Ⅲ(草地转化为林地),其适宜需水量达784.69×10⁴ m³,情景Ⅱ(林地转化为草地)的需水量最小,适宜需水量是687.27×10⁴ m³,该情景较适合向下游输水为目的的生态建设,但该情景实施的前提是建立下游向上游的生态补偿机制。     

土地利用/土地覆被变化研究范式的转变

土地利用/土地覆被变化(LUCC)研究的形成和发展经历了从前科学(无范式)到科学(以范式为标志)的历史过程.认识LUCC研究范式及其转变的内涵和实质对其理论和应用的发展与完善具有极为重要的意义,并有助于提高解释和预测能力.本文以库恩的“范式”和“范式转变”为基本脉络,剖析了LUCC研究中的实证主义范式、科学人文主义范式、结构功能主义范式以及复杂性范式,并指出范式及其转变主要在本体论、认识论和方法论三个层面表现出来.实证主义范式强调决定论以及主客体分离,认为应把经验与逻辑分析作为客观地认识现实的基础,它贯穿1UCC不同发展阶段,在初期发挥了重要作用,至今仍主导着LUCC研究；科学人文主义在科学主义或实证主义的基础上强调了人的主体性,修正了它们的片面性；结构功能主义为我们提供了一种可资参考的系统分析方法,在宏观层面的许多重要理论见解和研究方法,值得LUCC研究者关注和借鉴；复杂性范式强调土地系统的非线性、自组织、连通性等特征,为LUCC研究提供了一种新的科学世界观、认识论和方法论,利用复杂性理论研究具有非线性特征的复杂土地系统,体现了当前LUCC研究的范式转变.     

Land‐Cover Change and Avian Diversity in the Conterminous United States

Abstract: Changes in land use and land cover have affected and will continue to affect biological diversity worldwide. Yet, understanding the spatially extensive effects of land‐cover change has been challenging because data that are consistent over space and time are lacking. We used the U.S. National Land Cover Dataset Land Cover Change Retrofit Product and North American Breeding Bird Survey data to examine land‐cover change and its associations with diversity of birds with principally terrestrial life cycles (landbirds) in the conterminous United States. We used mixed‐effects models and model selection to rank associations by ecoregion. Land cover in 3.22% of the area considered in our analyses changed from 1992 to 2001, and changes in species richness and abundance of birds were strongly associated with land‐cover changes. Changes in species richness and abundance were primarily associated with changes in nondominant types of land cover, yet in many ecoregions different types of land cover were associated with species richness than were associated with abundance. Conversion of natural land cover to anthropogenic land cover was more strongly associated with changes in bird species richness and abundance than persistence of natural land cover in nearly all ecoregions and different covariates were most strongly associated with species richness than with abundance in 11 of 17 ecoregions. Loss of grassland and shrubland affected bird species richness and abundance in forested ecoregions. Loss of wetland was associated with bird abundance in forested ecoregions. Our findings highlight the value of understanding changes in nondominant land cover types and their association with bird diversity in the United States.     

Ecological effects of cultivation on the machair sand dune systems of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland

The machair sand dune systems of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland are a unique habitat, which is rare within both a global and European context. Unusually, the machair habitat also represents an agricultural resource that is very important to the Hebridean people, having been subject to both grazing and cultivation throughout the historical period. Following designation as an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) in 1988, the machairs of South Uist have been studied with the aim of understanding the links between agricultural practice and their plant community and ecosystem dynamics. This research focused primarily on the effects of cultivation practices and their role in maintaining plant species richness and community and ecosystem stability. Within two carefully selected areas, the successional plant communities of machair at different stages of recovery following ploughing and cultivation of cereals and potato patches or ‘lazy beds’ were identified at both a macro- and micro-level. Investigations of the vegetation recovery processes on turves taken from newly ploughed land indicated that the initial stages of recolonization are characterized primarily by rapid vegetative reproduction and growth, although re-vegetation by seeds is also an important factor. The implications of these findings for the long-term management of machair plant communities are discussed and in particular the need to maintain old cultivation practices such as shallow ploughing. The need for more detailed research into both seed banks and seed rain and into processes of vegetative reproduction is stressed.     

Quantification of land use/land cover changes in Pearl River Delta and its impact on regional climate in summer using numerical modeling

This study quantified land use/land cover (LULC) changes in Pearl River Delta (PRD) of South China and its impact on regional climate over the last two decades. The LULC change analyses were accomplished by applying a change detection method to a set of Landsat imagery and ancillary data acquired from 1970s to 2000. The results indicate that the urban expansion is the prevailing LULC change in the PRD. Impact of LULC change on regional climate was simulated by using a mesoscale climate model. Two different land cover datasets circa 1990 and 2000 were input to the model to investigate the impact of urbanization on regional weather and climate condition in summer 2005. The simulation results show that rapid urban expansion can substantially alter regional climate conditions in the PRD region including monthly mean temperature, precipitation, moisture, and surface heat fluxes.     

Land use change in Southern Romania after the collapse of socialism

The drastic socio-economic and political changes that occurred after the breakdown of socialism in Eastern Europe triggered widespread land use change, including cropland abandonment and forest cover changes. Yet the rates and spatial patterns of post-socialist land use change remain largely unclear. We used Landsat TM/ETM+ images to classify land cover maps and assess landscape pattern changes from 1990 to 2005 in Argeş County, Southern Romania. Cropland abandonment was the most widespread change (21.1% abandonment rate), likely due to declining returns from farming, tenure insecurity, and demographic developments during transition. Forest cover and forest fragmentation remained remarkably stable during transition, despite widespread ownership transfers. Cropland abandonment provides opportunities for increased carbon sequestration, but threatens cultural landscapes and biodiversity. Continued monitoring is important for assessing whether abandoned croplands will eventually reforest or be put back into production and to better understand the consequences of post-socialist land use change for ecosystems and biodiversity.     

Using optical remote sensing techniques to track the development of ozone-induced stress

In this paper, a literature review about optical remote sensing (RS) of O₃ stress is presented. Studies on O₃-induced effects on vegetation reflectance have been conducted since late ‘70s based on the analysis of optical RS data. Literature review reveals that traditional RS techniques were able to detect changes in leaf and canopy reflectance related to O₃-induced stress when visible symptoms already occurred. Only recently, advanced RS techniques using hyperspectral sensors, demonstrated the feasibility of detecting the stress in its early phase by monitoring excess energy dissipation pathways such as chlorophyll fluorescence and non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). Steady-state fluorescence (Fs), measured by exploiting the Fraunhofer line depth principle and NPQ related xanthophyll-cycle, estimated through the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) responded to O₃ fumigation before visible symptoms occurred. This opens up new possibilities for the early detection of vegetation O₃ stress by means of hyperspectral RS.     

Even low to medium nitrogen deposition impacts vegetation of dry, coastal dunes around the Baltic Sea

Coastal dunes around the Baltic Sea have received small amounts of atmospheric nitrogen and are rather pristine ecosystems in this respect. In 19 investigated dune sites the atmospheric wet nitrogen deposition is 3-8 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. The nitrogen content of Cladonia portentosa appeared to be a suitable biomonitor of these low to medium deposition levels. Comparison with EMEP-deposition data showed that Cladonia reflects the deposition history of the last 3-6 years. With increasing nitrogen load, we observed a shift from lichen-rich short grass vegetation towards species-poor vegetation dominated by the tall graminoid Carex arenaria. Plant species richness per field site, however, does not decrease directly with these low to medium N deposition loads, but with change in vegetation composition. Critical loads for acidic, dry coastal dunes might be lower than previously thought, in the range of 4-6 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ wet deposition.