Change of Landscape Pattern and Its Eco-environmental Effects in Xianghuang Country, Inner Mongolia

Abstract

By using RS and GIS, the indexes of diversity, dominance, fragmentation and fractal dimension were calculated for Xianghuang County in Inner Mongolia, based on landscape ecology theory. The dynamic change of landscape pattern from 1985 to 2000 was analysised, and concluded that: at the landscape level, patch numbers, diversity and fragmentation all had increased, but landscape dominance and fractal dimension had decreased. At the element level, the interchange happened mainly among the three different coverage degree grasslands and among the grassland, farmland and wildland. The grassland degraded obviously, which caused the negative eco-environmental effects, such as grassland degradation, soil and water erosion et al.