The Effect of Land Cover Change on Carbon Cycle: A case Study in the Estuary of Yellow River Delta
土地覆被变化对陆地碳循环的影响—以黄河三角洲河口地区为例

Land cover change is a important effect on carbon cycle. In order to estimate changes in carbon pools and fluxes to the atmosphere, we used LandsatTMdata of 1992 and 1996 to calculate the extent of different land cover types and their change to each other in the estuary area ofYellowRiver delta. Image processing and unsupervised classification allowed the production of accurate land covermaps of 1992 and 1996, and then the changeswere detected. Estimation of carbon pools and fluxes to the atmosphere was carried out using the results of Landsat image analysis and published data about carbon stocks in vegetation and soil. The results showed that the vegetation carbon reserveswas 11.43×105t, the soil carbon reserves was 7.24×106t in 1992, while the area of forest increased 146.76×102hm2, and the vegetation carbon reserves increased 7.43×105t during the four years from 1992 to 1996. So the land cover change lead to an in- creasing in carbon reserves in this area. It is a carbon pools in the global change progress.