Vegetation Patch Structure and Dynamics at Gudong Oil Field of the Yellow River Delta, China

It is well known that the vegetation communities are damaged and subsided by oil field developments. However, the extending phenomenon of vegetation community caused by oil field explorations is rarely reported. In this paper, we used the high spatial resolution images to describe the patch structure and dynamics. The results indicate that: (1) it is sufficient to identify patch structure and analyze dynamic using high spatial resolution SPOT5 image data. (2) The patches are isodiametric or have irregular circular shapes which represent approximately 10.1% of the study area. (3) Without exogenous disturbance, the patches don’t decrease and the time of quick extensions of patches is less than five years, and the new patches don’t randomly grow at some certain location. Of course, to further study vegetation ring completeness and spatial distribution and the relationships with soil and water and nutrients benefit the restoration of wetland ecosystems of the study area.

[1]  R. Kadmon,et al.  Studying Long-Term Vegetation Dynamics Using Digital Processing of Historical Aerial Photographs , 1999 .

[2]  G. Pascoe.  Wetland risk assessment , 1993 .

[3]  Huiping Lin,et al.  A multi-scale study on land use and land cover quality change: The case of the Yellow River Delta in China , 2002 .

[4]  O. Sala,et al.  Patch structure, dynamics and implications for the functioning of arid ecosystems. , 1999, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[5]  Qichun Yang,et al.  Evaluating the ecological performance of wetland restoration in the Yellow River Delta, China. , 2009 .

[6]  O. Sala,et al.  Patch structure and dynamics in a Patagonian arid steppe , 1994, Vegetatio.

[7]  Nicolas Barbier,et al.  Self‐organized vegetation patterning as a fingerprint of climate and human impact on semi‐arid ecosystems , 2006 .

[8]  Yuanman Hu,et al.  Influence of hydrology process on wetland landscape pattern: A case study in the Yellow River Delta , 2009 .

[9]  Huang Pei-you,et al.  Research on the extension ofTamarix shrubs resulted from development projects in arid area , 2004, Journal of Forestry Research.

[10]  Qingshui Lu,et al.  Fragmentation effects of oil wells and roads on the Yellow River Delta, North China , 2011 .

[11]  Satellite tracking of the migration of the red-crowned crane Grus japonensis , 1998, Ecological Research.

[12]  Ren-qing Wang,et al.  Plant community succession in modern Yellow River Delta, China , 2007, Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE B.

[13]  Hongliang Fang,et al.  Land Cover and Vegetation Change in the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve Analyzed with Landsat Thematic Mapper Data , 2000 .