Rapid vegetation regeneration in a seriously degraded Rhanterium epapposum community in northern Kuwait after 4 years of protection.
TL;DR: There has been a striking recovery of the dwarf shrub vegetation in Sabriya-IN during the 4 years, with cover values of shrubs as high as at Sulaibiya, which contradicts the view that vegetation recovery is a slow process in desert ecosystems.
About: This article is published in Journal of Environmental Management.The article was published on 2003-08-01. It has received 33 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Rhanterium epapposum & Vegetation.
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TL;DR: In this paper, characteristics of vegetation and soil properties under continued grazing and exclusion of livestock for 6 and 12 years were examined in a degraded Stipa tenacissima steppe in South Tunisia.
119 citations
TL;DR: After six years of natural vegetation succession, the landslide has gradually restored, and vegetation recovery rate reached up to 86%.
Abstract: The catastrophic earthquake, 7.3 on the Richter scale, occurred on September 21, 1999 in Central Taiwan. Much of standing vegetation on slopes was eliminated and massive, scattered landslides were induced at the Jou-Jou Mountain area of the Wu-Chi basin in Nantou County. We evaluated three methods for assessing landslide hazard and vegetation recovery conditions. (1) Self-organizing map (SOM) neural network coupled with fuzzy technique was used to quickly extract the landslide. (2) The NDVI-based vegetation recovery index derived from multi-temporal SPOT satellite images was used to evaluate vegetation recovery rate in the denudation sites. (3) The spatial distribution index (SDI) based on land-cover topographic location was employed to analyze vegetation recovery patterns, including the invading, surviving and mixed patterns at the Jou-Jou Mountain area. On September 27, 1999, there were 849.20 ha of landslide area extracted using the self-organizing map and fuzzy technique combined model. After six years of natural vegetation succession, the landslide has gradually restored, and vegetation recovery rate reached up to 86%. On-site observation shows that many native pioneer plants have invaded onto the denudation sites even if disturbed by several typhoons. Two native surviving plants, Arundo formosana Hack and Pinus taiwanensis Hayata, play a vital role in natural vegetation succession in this area, especially for the sites on ridgeline and steep slopes.
51 citations
Cites background from "Rapid vegetation regeneration in a ..."
...In general, vegetation recovery is generally regarded as a slow process (Brown and Al-Mazrooei 2003), several environmental factors such as soil properties and moisture, slope gradient, typhoon disturbances and microclimate affect the rate of natural vegetation succession....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effects of heavy grazing, moderate grazing and non-grazing on total vegetation cover, species richness, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and rangeland productivity.
Abstract: Although the effects of non-grazing and heavy grazing on vegetation structure have been extensively studied in a wide range of ecosystems, the effects of moderate grazing on desert land are still largely unknown. Many management opportunities exist for increasing forage intake. In order to determine an optimal management method of desert rangelands with high heritage value, we examined the respective effects of heavy grazing, moderate grazing and non-grazing on total vegetation cover, species richness, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and rangeland productivity. Sampling was done from 2010 to 2012 (from the second year after treatments were imposed) using permanent transects under different grazing intensities. While total vegetation cover, species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity index, species composition and primary production were significantly greater on the ungrazed site and significantly weaker on the heavily grazed site, in contrast, moderate grazing had no significant effect on total vegetation cover, species richness, Shannon diversity index, species composition and primary production. These studies suggest that desert rangelands plant communities in general lack response to moderate grazing disturbance, and if managed properly they can provide a valuable source of feed for livestock.
42 citations
Cites methods from "Rapid vegetation regeneration in a ..."
...This technique is generally beneficial in improving vegetation (Brown and Al-Mazrooei, 2003; Gamoun et al., 2010a, b)....
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TL;DR: It is concluded that SVM and ML are the best classifiers for assessing desert vegetation and the use of UAVs with multispectral sensors can eliminate some of the major limitations associated with satellite imagery, particularly when dealing with tiny plants such as native desert vegetation.
Abstract: Restoration programs require long-term monitoring and assessment of vegetation growth and productivity. Remote sensing technology is considered to be one of the most powerful technologies for assessing vegetation. However, several limitations have been observed with regard to the use of satellite imagery, especially in drylands, due to the special structure of desert plants. Therefore, this study was conducted in Kuwait's Al Abdali protected area, which is dominated by a Rhanterium epapposum community. This work aimed to determine whether Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) multispectral imagery could eliminate the challenges associated with satellite imagery by examining the vegetation indices and classification methods for very high multispectral resolution imagery using UAVs. The results showed that the transformed difference vegetation index (TDVI) performed better with arid shrubs and grasses than did the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). It was found that the NDVI underestimated the vegetation coverage, especially in locations with high vegetation coverage. It was also found that Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) classifiers demonstrated a higher accuracy, with a significant overall accuracy of 93% and a kappa coefficient of 0.89. Therefore, we concluded that SVM and ML are the best classifiers for assessing desert vegetation and the use of UAVs with multispectral sensors can eliminate some of the major limitations associated with satellite imagery, particularly when dealing with tiny plants such as native desert vegetation. We also believe that these methods are suitable for the purpose of assessing vegetation coverage to support revegetation and restoration programs.
32 citations
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3,089 citations
TL;DR: Studies of ecosystem processes on the Jornada Experimental Range in southern New Mexico suggest that longterm grazing of semiarid grasslands leads to an increase in the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of water, nitrogen, and other soil resources, which leads to the desertification of formerly productive land.
Abstract: Studies of ecosystem processes on the Jornada Experimental Range in southern New Mexico suggest that longterm grazing of semiarid grasslands leads to an increase in the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of water, nitrogen, and other soil resources. Heterogeneity of soil resources promotes invasion by desert shrubs, which leads to a further localization of soil resources under shrub canopies. In the barren area between shrubs, soil fertility is lost by erosion and gaseous emissions. This positive feedback leads to the desertification of formerly productive land in southern New Mexico and in other regions, such as the Sahel. Future desertification is likely to be exacerbated by global climate warming and to cause significant changes in global biogeochemical cycles.
2,376 citations
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01 Aug 1989
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship of seed banks to vegetation dynamics and processes that influence inputs and losses from seed banks was examined. But the role and importance of seed bank in vegetable types were not discussed.
Abstract: Examines factors influencing seed-bank dynamics and the variety of patterns found among different species. Topics include: the relationship of seed banks to vegetation dynamics; processes that influence inputs and losses from seed banks; and the role and importance of seed banks in vegetable types.
1,139 citations