A modified habitat quality model to incorporate the effects of ecological restoration

Abstract

Ecosystem restoration has the potential to improve the ecological environment, increase ecosystem service delivery capability, and promote biodiversity conservation. Although Habitat quality (HQ) is being widely used as a metric for large-scale biodiversity conservation, it is poorly understood and measured in areas with significant vegetation restoration. This study proposes a modified approach based on the InVEST-HQ module by coupling Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to measure the HQ in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) with extensive vegetation restoration in recent decades. The results show that the vegetation restoration area with significant increases in both Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Net Primary Production (NPP) accounts for 29.7% of the total area of the YRB. The original and modified modules were compared. Based on the InVEST-HQ module, the results show that HQ has a tendency for very small changes in the years 2000, 2010, and 2020, with first a small increase and then a small decrease; however, habitat quality based on the modified method has a significantly increasing trend, which is consistent with the ecological restoration status of the study area and the trend of key ecosystem parameters. The modified method effectively expresses habitat quality changes with vegetation restoration, making it more appropriate for usage in areas where nature conservation and ecosystem restoration are important management actions, allowing for realistic decision-making and data support for regional biodiversity conservation and habitat management.

Is marginalised cultivated land on the Tibetan Plateau suitable for production or ecology? An example from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

“…The InVEST model evaluates the habitat maintenance function from two aspects: the suitability of the environment itself and the threat of external factors (R. M. Ma et al, 2022). Self‐suitability is determined by the habitat type of the object itself; in the study, the habitat type of marginalised cultivated land was classified into the two categories of flat cultivated land and sloping cultivated land, in which cultivated land with a slope of less than 10° is flat cultivated land and cultivated land with a slope of more than 10° is sloping cultivated land.…”

“…Habitat Quality module (HQ) in the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model is widely used in the evaluation of habitat maintenance function, and its advantages are mainly reflected in its strong spatial analysis ability, high evaluation accuracy and easy access to input data(Deng et al, 2018).The InVEST model evaluates the habitat maintenance function from two aspects: the suitability of the environment itself and the threat of external factors (R. M Ma et al, 2022)…”

Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Habitat Quality Analysis in the Temperate Desert Sub-Region of Ordos Plateau, China

“…The transformation of land use patterns in the temperate desert sub-region of the Ordos Plateau is the result of the combination of many factors [45,46]. Factors that threaten habitat quality include wasteland, unused land, and cropland [47,48]. Changes in the areas of these three land use types directly affect the changes in habitat quality.…”

Assessing Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Habitat Quality under Urbanization Stress in Guangdong Province: An inVEST-MGWR Analytical Approach

“…At the scale of nations, provinces, urban clusters, or watersheds, a thorough analysis of habitat quality trends offers a macroscopic overview of the changing status of regional habitats [5,14,15]. Grasping spatial patterns in habitat quality across geographic areas is also essential.…”