Spatial Variability of Soil Moisture in Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus massoniana Mixed Forest and Pinus massoniana Pure Forest\nin Three Gorges Reservoir Area
Abstract:The soil moisture is a most important ecological factor on the earth‘s surface ecological process. It plays an important role in ecological environment protection in Three Gorges Reservoir Area. The geostatistics method was used to determine and quantify the spatial variability of soil water(0.00 - 20.00 cm)for analysis of spatial patters of soil moisture in two typical forest communities (30.00 m×30.00 m)i.e.Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus massoniana mixed forest(A), Pinus massoniana pure forest(B)in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.Using the grid sampling method(3.00 m×3.00 m space),98 sampling points were fixed in tota1.Based on autocorrelation analysis, the spatial correlation structure of these soil moisture patterns was calculated with the aid of the Moran‘s I index.The results showed that:(1) the spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture was different obviously between the two forest types, the spatial heterogeneity of plot B was stronger than that of plot A; (2) the analysis of semivariogram at all types had good semivariogram structure. Significant differences were found on spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture between plot A and B. Two semivariance graphs could be expressed by spherical model. There were significant differences in the ranges of spatial autocorrelation between the two types communities, the effective ranges of soil moisture were 51.00 m and 12.37 m, respectively. Autocorrelated spatial heterogeneity was a main component of the spatial heterogeneity. Their spatial pattern came out as obvious patches from the spatial framework maps; (3) The soil moisture spatial variability in this region mostly contributed to the influencing factors, such as vegetation topography and micro-physiognomy.