Arid Zone Research ›› 2016, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (3): 467-475.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2016.03.03

• Soil and Soil Utilization • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal Variation of Soil Moisture Content in the Mongolia Plateau in Plant Growing Season

WEI Bao-cheng1, YIN Shan1,2, JIA Xu3, BAO Yu-hai2, NA Ri-su1, YU Shan2   

  1. 1. College of Geographical Science,Inner Mongolia Normal University,Hohhot 010022,Inner Mongolia,China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System,Inner Mongolia Normal University,Hohhot 010022, Inner Mongolia,China;
    3. College of Ecology and Environmental Science,Inner Mongolia Agricultural University,Hohhot 010018,Inner Mongolia,China
  • Received:2015-10-27 Revised:2016-02-29 Online:2016-05-15 Published:2016-05-31

Abstract: Soil moisture content is an important parameter of hydrological system. An inversion model of soil moisture content in the Mongolia Plateau was developed by using the ω-τ and Qp models based on AMSR-2 bright temperature data and SPOT Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data. The values of topsoil moisture content during the period from April to October 2013 were retrieved to study the spatiotemporal variation of topsoil moisture content. The results showed that the Pearson Correlation Coefficient between the retrieved and measured values of soil moisture content was 0.825,root-mean square error was 0.031 6 cm3·cm-3,and the retrieval results were very good. The average values of topsoil moisture content varied in a range of 0.047-0.234 cm3·cm-3,and spatially the soil moisture content was gradually decreased from north to south and from northeast to southwest. Spatiotemporally,the soil moisture content in the forest-sylvosteppe areas in north Mongolia and the Greater Khingan Mountains of Inner Mongolia fluctuated markedly.

Key words: plant growing season, moisture content, spatiotemporal variation, AMSR-2, the Mongolia Plateau