title: The dynamic monitoring of aeolian desertification land distribution and its response to climate change in northern China.
abstract: Aeolian desertification is poorly understood despite its importance for indicating environment change. Here we exploit Gaofen-1(GF-1) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to develop a quick and efficient method for large scale aeolian desertification dynamic monitoring in northern China. This method, which is based on Normalized Difference Desertification Index (NDDI) calculated by band1 &band2 of MODIS reflectance data (MODIS09A1). Then we analyze spatial-temporal change of aeolian desertification area and detect its possible influencing factors, such as precipitation, temperature, wind speed and population by Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM) model. It suggests that aeolian desertification area with population indicates feedback (bi-directional causality) between the two variables (P < 0.05), but forcing of aeolian desertification area by population is weak. Meanwhile, we find aeolian desertification area is significantly affected by temperature, as expected. However, there is no obvious forcing for the aeolian desertification area and precipitation. Aeolian desertification area with wind speed indicates feedback (bi-directional causality) between the two variables with significant signal (P < 0.01). We infer that aeolian desertification is greatly affected by natural factors compared with anthropogenic factors. For the desertification in China, we are greatly convinced that desertification prevention is better than control.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Desertification Studies, Qinghai Gonghe Desert Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Desertification Studies, Qinghai Gonghe Desert Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China.
authors.forename: Zhiqing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Institute of Desertification Studies, Qinghai Gonghe Desert Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China.
authors.forename: Qingxue
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li