Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Geography: NECT

Summary

The Northeast China Transect (NECT), one of the mid-latitude IGBP terrestrial transects, runs in parallel to 43º30'N and ranges from 42º to 46ºN and from 106º to 134ºE. The major global change gradient is precipitation ranging from 600-1000 mm in the east, 300-600 mm in the middle, and 100-300 mm in the west. Due to the steep moisture gradient, vegetation along the transect varies gradually from temperature evergreen conifer-deciduous broad leaf mixed forests, decidous broad leaf forests, woodlands, and shrublands in the east to typical steppes and desert steppes in the west, with agricultural fields, temperature savannas and meadow steppes in the middle. A secondary driving gradient is land use intensity from forest regions in the east, to agriculture in the middle, to pastoral areas in the west. The transect is an important base of forestry, agriculture and pastoral productions in China, producing wood, hay, grain crops (maize, soybean, wheat and rice) and cattle (leather, wool and milk).

References

[1] Ni, J., & Zhang, X.-S. (2000). Climate variability, ecological gradient and the Northeast China Transect (NECT). Journal of Arid Environments, 46(3), 313-325. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jare.2000.0667.

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