Environ Earth Sci (2011) 64:19651973 DOI 10.

1007/s12665-011-1013-0

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The changes of vegetation cover in Ejina Oasis based on water resources redistribution in Heihe River
Wang Yaobin Feng Qi Si Jianhua Su Yonghong Chang Zongqiang Xi Haiyang

Received: 19 March 2010 / Accepted: 9 March 2011 / Published online: 23 March 2011 Springer-Verlag 2011

Abstract The Ejina Oasis (EO), located in arid northwest China, is a typical arid area in the world. The ecosystem in the oasis has become worse since the 1990s. However, it began to improve after the Chinese government took the mandatory measure to redistribute the water in Heihe in 2000. To understand this change, the remote sensing images in 1990, 2000 and 2006 were selected, and exertion related Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) model was employed. Results showed that: (1) non-vegetation cover was the main body of the vegetation cover in oasis, showing a trend of increase at the beginning and diminution later, while low, medium and high vegetation cover was the other way around; (2) the area of low, medium and high vegetation cover in 2006 was less than that in 1990; the status and trend index Pt of oasis vegetation cover was 0.62 in 19902000, which means that the oasis ecosystem of Ejina was getting worse and was under an unbalanced status; Pt was 0.27 in 20002006 indicating that the oasis ecosystem was restored obviously and the whole system tended to be balanced; (3) all of these changes should be attributed to the water resources redistribution in Heihe River, which played a leading role, as well as the measures and relevant policies taken by the local government, which promoted the rapid recovery of the medium and high vegetation.
W. Yaobin (&) F. Qi S. Jianhua S. Yonghong C. Zongqiang X. Haiyang Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Donggang West Road 320, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China e-mail: yaobinwang2006@163.com W. Yaobin The Lab and Department of Equipment Management, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730000, China

Keywords Ejina Oasis Vegetation cover LUCC Water resources redistribution in Heihe River Northwest China

Introduction In arid areas, vegetation acting as an important ecological indicator can reect the status of environment directly (Li 1999), and the vegetation cover changes can represent evolvement and variance of the environment. Researches on vegetation cover changes have become an important instrument to bring about the changes of environment and their laws in arid areas (Wu and Wang 1980). In arid inland river basins, the central role of vegetation in the ecological environment cannot be ignored (Wang et al. 2002). The vegetation cover and its growth are one of the important indicators reecting the status of regional eco-environment, while changes in the perennial vegetation cover are a mirror that can reect the changes of the environment district in a variety of time (Jia et al. 2007). There is no other substitution for the vegetation cover in maintaining the stability of ecological environment in the lower reaches of the Heihe River (Zhao and Cheng 2001). Therefore, it is of great signicance to study vegetation cover changes in the lower reaches of the Heihe River. The Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is currently the most extensively applied one for representation of vegetation cover status (Tucker 1979). In the eld of vegetation study, foreign scholars mainly use NDVI to analyze trends of vegetation cover changes and their relationships with climate (Cihiar et al. 1991; Eklundh 1998; Nicholson and Farrar 1994). In recent years, the results of some studies suggest that the growth of vegetation is affected by global warming (Myneni et al. 1997, 1998).

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The role of vegetation cover in high-latitude area of the northern hemisphere is increasingly remarkable (Myneni et al. 1997; Keeling et al. 1996; Zhou et al. 2003). Some researches associate the activity of human beings with the changes in vegetation cover (Vicente-Serrano et al. 2005), and consider the tropical rain forest region in Brazil, the arid and semi-arid desert area in Africa and Central Asia as hot spots in this research (Tucker and Nicholson 1999; Beurs and Henebry 2004; Barbosa et al. 2006). Many domestic scholars also have done a lot of studies in this eld. Some researches indicate that the vegetation cover in western and northwestern areas of China was enhanced at large (Zhang et al. 2006a). In the past 20 years, the vegetation cover activity of China is increasingly remarkable (Fang et al. 2003). There is an obvious spatial difference in the climatic factor inuence on NDVI of the vegetation cover (Chen et al. 2001; Li et al. 2002). NDVI is highly relevant to the temperature, the change of climate and rainfall (Sun et al. 1998; Li and Tao 2000; Gong et al. 2002; Tang and Chen 2003). Rainfall is the root reason for the constraint on the growth of vegetation in the northern desert, and the changes in vegetation cover has clearly a hysteretic effect (Li and Shi 2000). Many scholars have also done a lot of fruitful researches on the vegetation cover changes of EO, namely researches on the relationship between: vegetation cover change and run-off and groundwater (Zhong et al. 2002a; Zhang et al. 2002; Xi et al. 2007; Jin et al. 2008; Cao et al. 2004; Feng et al. 2009); vegetation cover change and soil water and salt balance (Feng et al. 2009; Zhang et al. 2006a; Li et al. 2003); vegetation cover change and climate change (Cao et al. 2003; Huang 2003; Zhang et al. 2003); vegetation cover change and human activities (Li et al. 2004; Zhong et al. 2002b; Su et al. 2004), etc. All of these studies provide a scientic basis for the reconstruction of vegetation and ecology. However, few studies proceed with the general trend of vegetation cover area change and analysis on this trend of vegetation cover change. To make up for this and to contribute to the protection and recovery of the vulnerable ecosystem in EO, this paper, adopting Landsat thematic mapper (TM)/Landsat Enhanced TM (ETM) remote sensing images of EO and the related LUCC model, makes a detailed analysis of the general trend of the vegetation cover changes of the oasis and compares each vegetation cover grades and related parameters in the two periods of time.

total population of about 16,200 and an area of 3.288 km2. Though located in the eastern and western sides of the Ejina River with an annual average temperature of 8.3C and yearly average rainfall of 5070 mm only, the yearly average evaporation is over 3,000 mm. The surface water is so poor that the run-off and groundwater become the main water resource in EO (Gong et al. 1998; Wang and Chen 1998). The scope of this research (Fig. 1) covers the EO totally with an area of about 16,100 km2, based on the remote-sensing image of satellite orbit No.P133/33. Data and methods To ensure feasibility and reliability of the results, this paper chose its base data sources from the images of Landsat5TM and Landsat-7ETM? (1990 and 2006 with TM, 2000 with ETM?), selecting the remote-sensing image in July 2000 as the division when the water redistribution measure in Heihe was enforced. The remote-sensing image of September 1990 was selected as the representative for the pre-redistribution period (when the oasis was getting worse) and the remote-sensing image of September 2006 as the post-redistribution period (when the situation in the oasis was getting better).The reason for selecting July 2000 was that the next month, August 2000, was the time at which the measure of water redistribution would be carried out in the Heihe River. September 1990 and September 2006 were selected because it is generally accepted that

Materials and methods Study area EO is a typical representative of oases in arid areas. It is located in the extreme arid climate zone in China with a

Fig. 1 Location map of the study area

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September is the best time of the year for the vegetation cover in the area and the remote-sensing image is of best quality because the sky is free of cloud at that time. First, the geometric and atmospheric corrections, radiometric rectication and image cropping were carried out on images with ENVI 3.5, and color composites were generated by displaying the bands 4, 3 and 2 (R, G, B), respectively. Geometric correction was carried out on a 1:50,000 topographic map using the second-order polynomial transform method by selecting 25 control points with average distribution of less than 0.5 pixel root mean square error (RMSE).The radiometric rectication was carried out by means of image regression method, with which the image reection of the ETM? in July 2000 was calculated. Based on the previous calculation, the atmospheric radiation on the image of 1990 and 2006 was calculated. Second, the three periods of vegetation coverage was calculated based on NDVI and two components sub-pixel model. The vegetation cover grade was classied based on the particularity of the oasis and the vegetation coverage (Table 1). Third, spatial superposition operation was conducted to study the vegetation cover grades map in different periods to obtain the corresponding transfer matrix of vegetation cover grade. Last, the trend of vegetation cover was evaluated by the related LUCC model. Related LUCC models The research approach to vegetation cover change included mainly the following: vegetation index, regression analysis, decision tree, articial neural network, sub-pixel analysis, etc. All these methods can reveal the changes in the vegetation cover well. On the other hand, they are unable to analyze the various types of vegetation cover

transformations. This paper combines vegetation index with the LUCC model, which can reveal the changes of vegetation cover in the study area and reect various types of vegetation cover transformations. The related LUCC models are listed below (Shi et al. 2000). Change rate Rd is used to reect the changes of total amount of different land cover types: Rd Ub Ua =Ua 100% 1

Single type trend degree Rs shows the change speed in amount of a certain LUCC type at a certain period of time in the region: Rs Ub Ua =Ua =T 100% DUin DUout =Ua =T 100% 2

Single type trend degree Rss expresses the dimensional change of a certain LUCC type at a certain period of time in the region: Rss DUin DUout =Ua =T 100% 3

Ps is an index to reect the trend of changes and the status of LUCC type, when 0 B Ps B 1, the trend of changes is upward, when 0 [ Ps C 1, it is fall. Ps Rs =Rss DUin DUout =DUin DUout
n X i1 n .X i1

1  Ps  1 4

Pt

jDUouti DUini j

jDUouti DUini j

0  Pt  1 5 Pt is an index to show the overall trend of changes and the status of regional LUCC, when 0 B Pt \ 1/4, it is in balance; when 1/4 B Pt \ 1/2, in quasi balance; when 1/2 B Pt \ 3/4, in unbalance; when 3/4 B Pt B 1, in extreme unbalance. Ub and Ua are a certain type area at the beginning and ending period of research; T is the study period; DUouti is the sum of the area of a certain type converting into the other type at period t, while DUini is the sum of the area of a certain type transforming from the other type.

Table 1 The description of vegetation cover grade Section \5% 530% Grade Non-vegetation cover Low vegetation cover Code N L Description Equivalent to bare land, sand and Gobi Equivalent to semimobile sandy land, low-yield grassland and uncultivated farmland Equivalent to shrub woodland, medium and low-yielding grassland, xed sandy land and overow land Equivalent to dense shrub land, forests and high-quality arable land

Results Changes of the vegetation cover area in the oasis With the help of statistical functions of ArcGIS and the grade (Table 1), vegetation cover areas in the oasis in 1990, 2000 and 2006 were classied and collected to analyze the characteristics of vegetation cover area changes in EO (Table 2). It can be seen from the table that the main

3060%

Medium vegetation cover

[60%

High vegetation cover

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1968 Table 2 The changes in the vegetation cover area in Ejina Oasis (km2, %) Code 1990 Area N L M H 10524.67 5150.69 396.83 40.72 % 65.32 31.97 2.46 0.252 2000 Area 11183.76 4653.63 248.05 7.55 % 69.41 28.88 1.54 0.17 2006 Area 10877.14 4894.42 305.19 36.04 % 67.51 30.28 1.89 0.22

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19902000 Variation 659.09 -497.06 -148.78 -13.17

20002006 Variation -306.6 240.79 57.14 8.49

19902006 Variation 352.47 -256.3 -91.64 -4.68

part of the area was non-vegetation, among which the cover area in 2000 was the biggest with a value of 11183.76 km2, accounting for 69.41% of the total. The area of 659.09 km2 was more than that in 1990. In 2006, the area decreased by 306.62 km2 compared with 2000 and increased by 352.47 km2 compared with 1990. However, the low, medium and high vegetation cover areas in 2000 were the smallest with reductions of 497.06, 148.78 and 13.17 km2, respectively, compared with that in 1990. In 2006, the corresponding areas increased by 240.79, 57.14 and 8.49 km2, respectively, compared with that in 2000 and decreased by 256.27, 91.64 and 4.68 km2 compared with that in 1990, respectively. Dynamic changes of vegetation cover in the oasis between 1990 and 2000 With the help of ArcInfo software, Map Algebra Method (Shi et al. 2000) and the related LUCC models, Table 3, 4 and 5 were obtained to analyze dynamic changes of the vegetation cover in EO. It can be seen from the tables that during 19902000, there were mainly four types of vegetation cover changes: LN, MN, NL and ML. These four types made up over 87% changes of the total areas in the oasis. It concretely showed that the non-vegetation cover increased while the low and medium vegetation covers decreased. Among them, the increase in the nonvegetation mainly came from the low and medium vegetation. The low vegetation accounted for 76.58% of the increase of the non-vegetation area, while the medium was 21.06%. The increase of the low vegetation was mainly from the non-vegetation and medium vegetation with 58.55 and 36.77%, respectively. The increase of the medium vegetation was from the low vegetation and non-vegetation with 47.11 and 45.49% respectively. The increase of the high vegetation was from the non-vegetation, the low vegetation and the medium vegetation, accounting for 36.01, 19.86 and 44.14%, respectively. On the whole, the non-vegetation area increased in this period in the oasis, while the low, medium and high vegetation decreased. The decrease in the medium and high vegetation areas was particularly remarkable and the corresponding Rd were -37.49 and -32.34, respectively; Rs were -3.75 and

-3.23, respectively. Only the non-vegetation cover increased, and the corresponding Rd was 6.26 and Rs was 0.63. The index of the status and trend of the entire oasis Pt was 0.62, indicating that transfer of types in the area showed a two-way tendency and was under an unbalanced status. Dynamic changes of vegetation cover in the oasis between 2000 and 2006 Similarly, it can be seen from Table 6, 7 and 8 that during 20002006, there were mainly ve types of vegetation cover changes: NL, LN, LM, MN and NM. These
Table 3 The transfer matrix of vegetation cover changes in Ejina Oasis between 1990 and 2000 (km2, %) 2000 N 1990 N B C L B C M B C H B C Total (Occupy %) 573.75 93.35 76.58 157.79 70.20 21.06 17.65 56.90 2.36 749.19 (74.41) 59.00 26.25 36.77 7.51 24.21 4.68 160.47 (15.94) 5.86 18.89 7.40 79.16 (7.86) 18.08 (1.80) 1006.90 93.96 68.85 58.55 36.01 26.38 45.49 37.29 6.07 47.11 6.51 4.77 36.01 3.59 0.58 19.86 7.98 3.55 44.14 31.02 (3.08) 224.77 (22.32) 614.63 (61.04) 136.48 (13.55) L M H Total (occupancy %)

B is a proportion that the i vegetation cover grade in 1990 converted into j in 2000 C is a proportion that the j vegetation cover grade in 2000 transformed from i in 1990

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Environ Earth Sci (2011) 64:19651973 Table 4 The kind of vegetation cover change type in Ejina Oasis between 19902000 (km2, %) Encode 21 31 12 22 23 13 Change type LN MN NL ML LM NM Unit area 573.75 157.79 93.96 59.00 37.29 36.01 Total rate 56.98 15.67 9.33 5.86 3.70 3.58 Encode 41 34 42 14 43 24 Change type HN MH HL NH HM LH Unit area 17.65 7.98 7.51 6.51 5.86 3.59

1969

Total rate 1.75 0.79 0.75 0.65 0.58 0.36

Table 5 The LUCC model analysis of vegetation cover changes in Ejina Oasis between 1990 and 2000 (km2, %) Code U1990 Area N L M H Pt = 0.62 U19902000 is the area of the type of vegetation cover that did not change; DUout is the sum of the area of a certain type that was converted into the other type between 1990 and 2000; DUin is the sum of the area of a certain type transformed from the other type between 1990 and 2000 10524.67 5150.69 396.83 40.72 U19902000 Area 10388.19 4536.06 172.06 9.70 DUin Area 749.19 160.47 79.16 18.08 % 7.12 3.12 19.95 44.40 DUout Area 136.48 614.63 224.77 31.02 % 1.30 11.93 56.64 76.18 6.26 -9.65 -37.49 -32.34 0.63 -0.97 -3.75 -3.23 8.42 15.05 76.59 120.58 7.48 -6.45 -4.90 -2.68 Rd Rs Rss Ps

Table 6 The transfer matrix of vegetation cover changes in Ejina Oasis between 2000 and 2006 (km2, %) 2006 N 2000 N B C L B C M B C H B C Total (Occupy %) 260.16 63.21 73.66 86.31 54.20 24.44 6.70 32.78 1.90 353.17 (28.73) 57.44 36.07 9.09 8.23 40.26 1.30 632.15 (51.43) 5.51 26.96 2.56 214.98 (17.49) 28.95 (2.36) 1229.25 566.48 88.79 89.61 64.03 10.04 29.78 145.44 35.34 67.65 7.49 1.17 25.87 5.96 1.45 20.59 15.50 9.73 53.54 20.44 (1.66) 159.25 (12.96) 411.56 (33.48) 638.00 (51.90) L M H Total (occupancy %)

vegetation cover decreased. Among them the increase of the low vegetation area was mainly from the non-vegetation, making up 89.61% of the increase of the low vegetation. The increase of the medium vegetation was mainly from the low vegetation and the non-vegetation covers occupying 67.65 and 29.78%, respectively. The increase in the non-vegetation was mainly from the low and medium vegetation covers with 73.66 and 24.44%, respectively. The increase in the high vegetation was from the medium, low and the non-vegetation areas, accounting for 53.54, 20.59 and 25.87%, respectively. In light of the general trend, only the non-vegetation cover was decreased during this period, showing a trend of fall; and the low, middle and high vegetation cover areas all increased, showing a trend of upward. Among them the medium and high vegetation covers had an apparent tendency to increase, and the corresponding Rd were 23.04 and 30.82, respectively, while Rs were 3.84 and 5.14, respectively. The nonvegetation cover showed a decreasing trend; its Rd was -2.74 and Rs was -0.46. The index of the status and trend of the whole oasis Pt was 0.27, indicating that transfer of types in the area was under a kind of quasi-balance status. Comparison of changes of vegetation covers in the oasis between 19902000 and 20002006 It can be concluded from Figs. 2 and 3, which are comparison of the types of vegetation cover changes in the oasis based on Table 4 and Table 7 that the type of vegetation cover changes showed consistency in the two periods.

ve types accounted for over 91% of the changes in the total areas of the oasis, which clearly shows that the low and medium vegetation cover increased and the non-

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1970 Table 7 The sort of vegetation cover change type in Ejina Oasis between 2000 and 2006 (km2, %) Encode 12 21 23 31 13 32 Change type NL LN LM MN NM ML Unit area 566.48 260.16 145.44 86.31 64.03 57.44 Total rate 46.08 21.16 11.83 7.02 5.21 4.67 Encode 34 42 14 41 24 43

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Change type MH HL NH HN LH HM

Unit area 15.50 8.23 7.49 6.70 5.96 5.51

Total rate 1.26 0.67 0.61 0.55 0.48 0.45

Table 8 The LUCC model analysis of vegetation cover changes in Ejina Oasis between 2000 and 2006 (km2, %) Code U2000 Area N L M H Pt = 0.27 11183.76 4653.63 248.05 27.55 U20002006 Area 10545.76 4242.07 88.80 7.11 DUin Area 353.17 632.15 214.98 28.95 % 3.16 13.58 86.67 105.08 DUout Area 638.00 411.56 159.25 20.44 % 5.70 8.84 64.20 74.19 -2.74 5.17 23.04 30.82 -0.46 0.86 3.84 5.14 8.86 22.43 150.87 179.27 -5.19 3.83 2.55 2.87 Rd Rs Rss Ps

Fig. 2 The comparison of vegetation cover changes type in 19902000 and 20002006 in the Ejina Oasis

Fig. 4 The comparison of DUin of vegetation cover changes in 19902000 and 20002006 in the Ejina Oasis

Fig. 3 The comparison of area of vegetation cover changes type in 19902000 and 20002006 in the Ejina Oasis

Fig. 5 The comparison of DUout of vegetation cover changes in 19902000 and 20002006 in the Ejina Oasis

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During 19902000, LN type was the most obvious one with a value of 573.75 km2; during 20002006, NL was the most obvious one with a value of 566.48 km2. These six NL, LN, LM, MN, NM and ML change types in vegetation cover were all relatively prominent in the two periods. NL type had the greatest difference in its area with a value of 472.52 km2, followed by LN and LM types, while other types were opposite but not so obvious. From Figs. 4 and 5, based on Tables 5 and 8, it can be seen that in the two periods, DUin (the total area of a certain type of transform from the other type) of the non-vegetation cover in 20002006 was smaller than that in 19902000; the other of the low, medium and high vegetation cover were all larger than that in 19902000. By contrast, DUout (the total area of a certain type that was converted into the other type) of the non-vegetation cover in 20002006 was larger than that in 19902000; and that of the other low, medium and high vegetation cover were all smaller than that in 19902000. At the same time, the biggest difference of DUin was in the low vegetation cover with an area of 471.68 km2. The biggest difference of

DUout was in the non- vegetation cover with an area of 501.52 km2. In the same way, Figs. 6 and 7 are used to analyze Rs and Ps. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that in the two periods, the trends of vegetation cover changes Ps were opposite. During 19902000, the non-vegetation cover showed a trend of upward, and the other low, medium and high vegetation cover showed a fall. On the contrary, during 20002006, the non-vegetation cover showed a trend of fall, while the others were upward. It can be seen from Fig. 6 that during 19902000, the transformation speed (Rs) of the medium vegetation cover was the fastest, followed by the high vegetation, while the transformation speed of the high vegetation cover was the fastest, followed by the medium vegetation during 20002006. The other low and non-vegetation cover had no obvious difference in transformation speed.

Discussions and conclusions During 19902000, EO the ecosystem had degenerated. The area of transformation of non-vegetation was higher than that in 20002006, and its area was increasing, reecting an upward trend. At the same time, transformation of other areas of low, medium and high vegetation was lower than that in 20002006, and their areas were decreasing, indicating a trend of fall. In contrast, during 20002006, the ecological restoration in EO was obviously effective. The area of transformation of non-vegetation cover was higher than that in 19902000, and its area reduced, showing a trend of fall. At the same time, the transformation of the other areas of low, medium and high vegetation cover was lower than that in 19902000 respectively, and their areas increased, indicating an upward trend. During the whole study period, considering many factors which affected the change in the vegetation cover in EO, the increase in the average annual temperature was greater, the change in rainfall was not obvious or in decreasing trend (Wang and Zhang 2007; Wang and Meng 2008; Wulan and Dang 2005), the population increment was steady and the livestock had a slightly decreasing trend (Su et al. 2004, 2005). The water volume from the run-off and the depth of reserved underground water mainly affected the changes in the vegetation cover of the oasis (Feng et al. 2009; Li et al. 2004; Su et al. 2004). Before 2000, cultivation of a large number of farmland and construction of large and medium reservoirs in the middle and upper reaches of Heihe River led to sharp reduction in the volume of downstream water and decline of groundwater levels. Meanwhile, EO was placed in a kind of passive state. All of these caused deterioration in the woods, grass and vegetation. The shallow-root plants

Fig. 6 The comparison of Rs of vegetation cover changes in 19902000 and 20002006 in the Ejina Oasis

Fig. 7 The comparison of Ps vegetation cover changes in 19902000 and 20002006 in the Ejina Oasis

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Environ Earth Sci (2011) 64:19651973 Beurs KM, Henebry GM (2004) Trend analysis of the pathnder AVHRR Land (PAL) NDVI data for the deserts of central Asia. IEEE Geosci Rem Sens Lett 1(4):282286 Cao L, Dou YX, Zhang DY (2003) Effect of climate change on ecological environment of Heihe eld. Arid Meteorol 21(4): 4549 (in Chinese) Cao WB, Wan L, Zhou X, Hu FS, Chen JS (2004) Effects of variation in water environment on ecosystem in the lower reaches of the Heihe Watershed. Hydrogeol Eng Geol 31(5):2125 (in Chinese) Chen YH, Li XB, Shi PJ (2001) Variation in NDVI driven by climate factors across China, 19831992. Acta Phytoecologica Sinica 25(6):716720 (in Chinese) Cihiar J, Laurent ST, Dyer JA (1991) Relation between the NDVI and ecological variables. Rem Sens Environ 35(3):279298 Eklundh L (1998) Estimating relations between AVHRR NDVI and rainfall in east Africa at 102 day and monthly time scales. Int J Remote Sens 19(3):563568 Fang JY, Piao SL, He JS (2003) The vegetation activity enhanced in the last 20 years in China. Sci China (Series C) 33(6):554565 (in Chinese) Feng Q, Si JH, Xi HY (2009) Hydrothermal process and ecological recovery technology of the desert oasis (in Chinese). Science Press, Beijin Gong JD, Dong GR, Li S, Gao SY, Xiao HL, Shen JY (1998) Degeneration of physical environment and its control in EO at the lower reaches of Heihe River. J Desert Res 18(1):4450 (in Chinese) Gong DY, Shi PJ, He XZ (2002) Spatial features of the coupling between spring NDVI and temperature over northern hemisphere. Acta Geographica Sinica 57(5):505514 (in Chinese) Huang CY (2003) A diagnostic analysis for the impact of climate change on ecolo-environment and natural vegetation in the Heihe River Valley. Clim Environ Res 8(1):8490 (in Chinese) Jia YH, Zhao CY, Nan ZR (2007) Review of study on vegetation cover change in the lower reaches of Heihe River in Northwest arid area. Prog Geogr 26(4):6474 (in Chinese) Jin XM, Hu GC, Li WM (2008) Hysteresis effect of runoff of the Heihe River on vegetation cover in the Ejian Oasis in northwestern China. Earth Sci Front 15(4):198203 Keeling CD, Chin JFS, Whorf TP (1996) Increasing activity of northern vegetation inferred from atmospheric CO2 measurement. Nature 382:146149 Li XZ (1999) Assessment of land use change using GIS: a case study in the Uanos de Orinoco. Wagemigen University Press, Netherlands Li XB, Shi PJ (2000) Sensitivity analysis of variation in NDVItemperature and precipitation in typical vegetation types across China. J Plant Ecol 24(3):379382 (in Chinese) Li BG, Tao S (2000) Correlation between AVHRR NDVI and climate factors. Acta Ecologica Sinica 20(5):898902 (in Chinese) Li XB, Chen YH, Zhang YX (2002) Impact of climate change on Desert Steppe in northern China. Adv Earth Sci 17(2):254261 (in Chinese) Li ZJ, Ni H, Tang ML, Zhou AG (2003) Analysis on the correlation between distribution of water-salinity-organic material-bearing in soil and growth of vegetation along the lower reaches area of Heihe River. Volcanol Miner Resour 24(2):143150 (in Chinese) Li S, Li F, Sun W, Li BS (2004) Modern desertication process in Ejina Oasis and its dynamic mechanism. Scientia Geographica Sinica 24(1):6167 (in Chinese) Myneni RB, Keeling CD, Tucker CJ, Asrar G, Nemani RR (1997) Increased plant growth in the northern high latitudes from 19811999. Nature 386:698702 Myneni RB, Tucker CJ, Asrar G, Keeling CD (1998) Interannual variations in satellite-sensed vegetation index data from 1981 to 1991. J Geophys Res 103(6):61456160

were replaced gradually by xeric and ultra-xeric plant death (Zhang et al. 2003). However, the Chinese government has taken a mandatory measure to redistribute the water in Heihe since 2000, which increased the water volume and groundwater levels in the lower reaches and recovery of certain populous emphatic, shrubs and desert vegetation. The ecological environment of the vegetation in EO was obviously improved (Si et al. 2005). However, the oasis vegetation cover in 2006 was lower than that in 1990, indicating that there was still a long way to go in terms of oasis restoration. Different types of vegetation cover changes were seen consistently in the two periods. During 19902000, the most obvious one was the LN type while it was NL during 20002006. This is mainly because the oasis vegetation cover was mainly composed of the low and the nonvegetation covers during the study periods, which accounted for more than 97%. During 19902000, the oasis was in a kind of passive state and the ecosystem had degenerated, so that the change of the LN type was the most obvious. Since the Heihe River redistribution was implemented in 2000, the vegetation ecology had begun to be restored. Therefore, the change of the NL type was the most visible during 20002006. During 19902000, the transformation of the medium vegetation cover was the fastest and was followed by the high vegetation cover, whereas it was the high and the medium vegetation during 20002006. It is mainly due to excessive cultivation of farmlands, excavation, mining and deforestation by people who were driven by economic interests during 19902000, which led to a widespread destruction of grassland and death of shrubs. Improper or excessive grazing patterns resulted in excessive use of excellent pasture and serious pasture degradation. During 20002006, some effective measures were taken by the local government, like fencing, stable breeding, ecological migrants and retreating farmland to pasture, forests and grasslands, culture of the articial repairs to sow saxoal in stockade area, transplant of liquorices and large-scale irrigation of natural grassland and etc. All of these measures have helped the vegetation cover of EO to recover rapidly (Si et al. 2005).
Acknowledgments This research was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (No.40725001) and National Science Fund of China (No.91025024). The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their reading of the manuscript, suggestions and critical comments.

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