Characteristics of Spatial Distribution of Vegetation Coverage in Grassland of the Bayan Soum, Mongolia
摘要
The semi-arid steppe of Bayan, in the central eastern part of Mongolia, was chosen for a field investigation in this study. In this area, the grassland occupies 96% of the whole area, and the economy strongly depends on livestock production. Therefore, the land is mainly used for grazing, as it constitutes around half of the population's livelihood. In recent years, unmanaged pastureland use is causing many issues in the area. In order to improve the problematic land overuse of grassland, it is important to understand the spatial distribution of vegetation coverage. We studied the characteristics of the spatial distribution of the vegetation coverage in the Bayan soum area using the percentages of grass coverage in the field sampling data. Land cover surveys were carried out at 200 sites in the ground survey area in the summer of 2010. Photos of ground covering 1 m 2 were taken to compute the percentages of ground surface components such as green grass, dried grass, bare soil and shadows. A geostatistical analysis was conducted to examine the spatial correlation of the vegetation coverage. The results indicated that remote sensing at high resolutions, such as spatial resolutions at less than 130 m, are necessary for pastureland use planning based on the vegetation coverage, particularly for green grass cover. The semivariograms also illustrate that the spatial distribution of vegetation coverage is related to differences in soil type and elevation.