Perennial waterlogged soil (PWS) is induced by the high level of groundwater, and has a persistent impact on natural ecosystems and agricultural production. Traditionally, distribution information regarding PWS is mainly collected from in situ measurements through groundwater level surveys and physicochemical property analyses. However, in situ measurements of PWS are costly and time-consuming, only rough estimates of PWS areas are available in some regions. In this paper, we developed a method to monitor the perennial waterlogged cropland using time-series moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The Jianghan Plain, a floodplain located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, was selected as the study area. Temporal variations of the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), night land surface temperature (LST), diurnal LST differences (ΔLST), albedo, and the apparent thermal inertia (ATI) were used to analyze the ecological and thermodynamic characteristics of the waterlogged croplands. To obtain pure remote sensing signatures of the waterlogged cropland from mixed pixels, the croplands were classified into different types according to soil and land cover types in this paper, and a linear mixing model was developed by fitting the signatures using the multiple linear regression approach. Afterwards, another linear spectral mixing model was used to get the proportions of waterlogged croplands in each 1 km×1 km pixel. The result showed an acceptable accuracy with a root-mean-square error of 0.093. As a tentative method, the procedure described in this paper works efficiently as a method to monitor the spatial patterns of perennial sub-surface waterlogged croplands at a wide scale.

Traditional agricultural systems have contributed to food and livelihood security. Rice-crab coculture (RC) is an important eco-agricultural process in rice production in northern China. Recognizing the soil fertility in RC may help develop novel sustainable agriculture. Soil carbohydrates are important factors in determining soil fertility in different culture modes. In this study, soil carbohydrates were analyzed under three different culture modes including rice monoculture (RM), conventional rice-crab coculture (CRC) and organic rice-crab coculture (ORC). Results showed that the contents of soil organic carbon and carbohydrates were significantly higher in the ORC than those in RM. The increasing effect was greater with increased organic manure. Similar tendency was found in CRC, but the overall effect was less pronounced compared with ORC. Carbohydrates were more sensitive to RC mode and manure amendment than soil organic carbon. Compare to RM, the (Gal+Man)/(Ara+Xyl) ratio decreased in all the RC modes, indicating a relative enrichment in plant-derived carbohydrates due to the input of crab feed and manure. While the increasing (Gal+Man)/(Ara+Xyl) ratio in ORC modes with increased organic manure suggested that crab activity and metabolism induced microbially derived carbohydrates accumulation. The lower GluN/MurA ratio in ORC indicated an enhancement of bacteria contribution to SOM turnover in a short term. The findings reveal that the ORC mode could improve the quantity and composition of soil carbohydrates, effectively, to ensure a sustainable use of paddy soil.