Geographic features of severely affected vegetated areas in the Nanling mountains due the 2008 ice storms in southern China

Abstract

The ice/snow storms which occurred from 10 January to 2 February 2008 in southern China were catastrophic to the forest ecosystem. In the study of Chen and Sun (2010), the severely affected vegetated areas due to the storms are identified by using the MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI). This study focuses on one of these areas, the Nanling Mountains, to investigate their geographic features. During the storm period, it is found that the Nanling Mountains suffered from only the ice storms. The severely affected vegetated areas generally have a high EVI, indicting a high density of vegetated lands, which are mostly covered by mixed forest. The slopes and drainage contributing areas of the impacted areas are normally larger and smaller, respectively, than those locations at which the vegetation was not severely impacted by the ice storms. The dominant slope aspects are southeast and south for the impacted areas below elevations of 650 m.