Monitoring the spatio-temporal dynamics of the wetland vegetation in Poyang Lake by Landsat and MODIS observations

Abstract Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake of China, provides critical ecological functions for water circulation and biodiversity conservation as a dynamic wetland system. However, recent climate change and human activities exerted strong pressures on this ecosystem. In this paper, we applied object-based image analysis (OBIA) and Radom Forests (RF) classifier to ten Landsat images to examine the land cover composition and its change during 1987–2017 low water season at Poyang Lake. NDVI time series (2000–2017) derived from MODIS imagery was used to document the changes of vegetation growth status. To investigate the potential driving mechanism of the inundation patterns, we differentiated the spatial-temporal changes of vegetation coverage and NDVI accumulation on eight elevation bands. Major result indicates that the vegetation area increased by 15.5% of the lake area during 1987–2017. A much faster-increasing rate (58.0 km2 year−1) can be observed during 2001–2009 as compared to that of the overall study period (18.4 km2 year−1). Analysis of NDVI accumulation showed that 42.1% of the lake's area displayed a significant increasing trend during 2000–2017. Spatially, the increase of vegetation area and NDVI accumulation mainly took place in the 11–12 m elevation band in the lower lake center. Early dry season and prolonged exposure period after the operation of Three Gorges Dam (TGD) was the major reason for the spatio-temporal evolution of the wetland vegetation in Poyang Lake. The Lake's water level started to fall below 12 m before 9th November might cause a boost of vegetation growth in the low lake center, and in turn, triggering xerophilization for the vegetation in the highlands and a shift in foraging patterns of waterbirds due to phenology variations. The findings of this study provide a clear reference for sustaining the inter-annual stability of the ecosystem by controlling the depth of water in the lake.