Abstract
The Dongting Lake area (China) is a climate change-sensitive and ecologically fragile area and plays a crucial role in the regulation of the regional climate. In recent decades, rapid social and economic development has led to increased land use/land cover (LULC) changes in the Dongting Lake area, which affect the surface energy balance and hydrological processes. Its contemporary variability under climate change remains highly uncertain. Therefore, we retrieved the Land surface temperature (LST) from the Landsat 7 data and explored its relationship with the LULC types. The results showed that LST is significantly affected by surface type. LST varied significantly across LULC types, with higher LSTs in built-up land, reed beach land, forest land, and paddy fields than in water bodies, mud beaches, marshlands, and riparian forests. Water bodies play an important regulatory role in reducing LST and mitigating thermal effects on the ground. The winter LST in the study area increased by approximately 3.5 °C, which may be related to the decrease in the area of Dongting Lake water bodies, water fields and reed flats after the Three Gorges Reservoir was impounded. Compared with the relationship between the NDVI, DEM, and distance from the water body, the negative correlation between the NDMI and LST was stronger and more stable and had the greatest effect on LST. These insights improve the understanding of the land change consequences on the temporal dynamics of LST.
Highlights
Land surface temperature (LST) is a reflection of the energy flow in the interactions between the land surface and atmosphere and between the land surface and biosphere
LST was extracted from Landsat TM/ETM+ data using a single-window algorithm, the differences in LST among different land use/land cover (LULC) types were analysed, the spatial distribution characteristics of LST and the NDMI, NDVI, digital elevation model (DEM), and distance were discussed, their quantitative relationships were determined, and the spatiotemporal distribution laws and influencing factors of LST were clarified
(1) The LULC type in the Dongting Lake area has changed significantly, with the area of water body and paddy field declining continuously and the area of built-up land and dryland increasing gradually; these results indicate that the changes in the LULC type in the area are related to the water impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam and the ecological management policies
Summary
Land surface temperature (LST) is a reflection of the energy flow in the interactions between the land surface and atmosphere and between the land surface and biosphere. Some studies have said the dam has had important impacts on the elements of the regional climate system and the interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere It has changed the distribution pattern of regional precipitation and temperature. We could better understand the influence of human activities on regional LST and its response to global warming The exploration of such regional LULC and climate change patterns and processes can provide a typical case for a larger range of global change studies. The Dongting Lake area is in the transitional zone of different ecological landscapes of the Yangtze River basin[32], occupying the most sensitive and vulnerable ecological location in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River This area is important in terms of regulating temperature and humidity and maintaining regional climate stability, biodiversity conservation, and water purification. Based on the digital elevation model (DEM) data of 30 m spatial resolution, the administrative division data for the second land survey period, the Moderate Resolution Imaging
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