The Preliminary Study on Bare Spots Under Populus Euphratica Canopy

Abstract Land degradation and desertification are the great concern of arid and semiarid areas. In Euphrates poplar forest, there exists large number of bare spots which have been considered as representative of desertification. In this study, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology was used to determine the spatial distribution and extract the bare spots area and morphological characteristics of Populus euphratica stands. Besides, the physical and chemical properties between soils inside and outside of these spots were compared. We found that: (1) the UAV method could be reliably used to extract the area of bare spots and the morphological characteristics of Populus euphratica stands;(2) with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.673 and 0.894, there were a strong correlation relationship between bare spots area and canopy area in both measured and estimated data rather than other morphological characteristics;(3) electrical conductivity, pH, soil water content, total nitrogen, total phosphorus and soil organic matter has great differences between soils inside and outside of bare spots. These results not only could contribute to further understanding of spatial distribution of bare spots, but also helps to the sustainable management of Populus euphratica forest in arid regions.