Arid Zone Research ›› 2024, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (9): 1583-1592.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2024.09.14

• Ecology and Environment • Previous Articles     Next Articles

A study on the potential for vegetation restoration in the soft rock area of the Ordos Plateau

QI Zhao(), YAN Feng, XI Lei, CAO Xiaoming, ZOU Jiaxiu, FENG Yiming()   

  1. Institute of Ecological Protection and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
  • Received:2024-03-26 Revised:2024-06-25 Online:2024-09-15 Published:2024-09-25
  • Contact: FENG Yiming E-mail:qizhao1104@163.com;fengym@caf.ac.cn

Abstract:

Evaluating the vegetation-carrying capacity of the soft rock area in the Yellow River Basin can provide a scientific basis for vegetation restoration and land degradation management. In this study, a representative portion of the Ordos Plateau soft rock area was divided into habitat types based on the varying distribution of vegetation under different topographic factors. Changes in vegetation type within different habitats from 2000 to 2022 were analyzed, and the carrying potential was quantified by the aboveground biomass obtained from the inversion of vegetation coverage. Vegetation cover of the Ordos Plateau increased slowly at a rate of 3.7% per year, with the highest growth rate observed in the bare soft rock region and the lowest in the sand-covered soft rock region. The aboveground biomass of the entire area increased by 115.5% in 2022 relative to that in 2000, reaching 219.49 g·m-2, with the annual average aboveground biomass being highest in the overlying soft rock region (185.29 g·m-2). The changes in vegetation cover and the spatial distribution of aboveground biomass were similar, with high values in southeast and low values in northwest. Compared with the actual aboveground biomass, the aboveground biomass of vegetation in bare, sand-covered, and soil-covered soft rock areas accounted for 75.2%, 80.9% and 84.2% of the carrying potential, respectively. In general, vegetation increased in all regions over the study period, with remaining growth potential, particularly in the exposed arsenic sandstone region.

Key words: the soft rock area, vegetation carrying capacity, above-ground biomass, vegetation coverage, ecological governance