Landscape Dynamics Improved Recreation Service of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

The quantitative and spatial–temporal variations in the characteristics of ecosystem value can be helpful to improve environmental protection and climate adaptation measures and adjust the balance between economic development and the ecological environment. The arid and semi-arid regions of China are undergoing the effects of climate change across the entire northern hemisphere. Their ecological environments are fragile and in conflict with anthropogenic activities, which significantly altered more ecosystems services in these regions. Therefore, estimating the effects of anthropogenic activities on ecosystem services is important for formulating ecological policy and regional environmental mitigation plans of these regions. This study employed the model of ecosystem service value (ESV) assessment and the bivariate spatial autocorrelation method to reveal the spatiotemporal variations in the characteristics of ecosystem value in the arid and semi-arid ecological regions of China and its interaction with human activities. Results showed that (1) the total value of ES of the study area increased from USD 487,807 billion in 2000 to USD 67,831,150 billion 2020; (2) the ES value provided by forest land first increased by 5.60% from 2000 to 2020; (3) the ESV provided by grassland showed an overall decline over the 20 years. Food and raw material production showed the lowest ES value, and climate regulation and soil conservation decreased from 2000 to 2020; (4) the index of human footprint patches decreased from 45.80% in 2000 to 17.63% in 2020, while the high and very high human footprint index areas increased significantly, mainly due to the rapid urbanization and improvement of railway networks in these areas. Spatially, the regions with high human footprint were mostly dispersed in the northeastern of China such as Shanxi and Gansu, whereas the regions with a low human footprint remained mainly located in the central and southwestern parts of China; (5) significant spatial dependencies between changes in ESV and the human footprint index were recorded. Our study could provide a scientific basis for ecosystem functions regulation and land development security in arid and semi-arid ecological regions.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Human Activities on Ecosystem Service Value in Arid and Semi-Arid Ecological Regions of China

Fan

Tiando

et al. 2021

“…As a typical biodiversity hotspot [ 25 , 31 ], the TGR area has about 6388 species of higher plants, 523 species of terrestrial vertebrates, 3418 species of insects, 350 species of fish, and 1085 species of plankton, benthic and aquatic plants [ 32 , 33 ]. Meanwhile, the TGR area is rich in plant resources with about 208 families, 1428 genera and 6088 species of vascular plants [ 32 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Correspondence analysis first discretizes the number of grids and then puts the data into a contingency table. The column names contain the two pollutant change characteristics and their names, while row names contain the names of the landscape change [ 31 ]. We used the correspondence analysis function in R language and the distance between the row and column categories embedded in the correspondence analysis graph to explore the relationship between the landscape change characteristics and the habitat quality change characteristics.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and Temporal Variations of Habitat Quality and Its Response of Landscape Dynamic in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

Liu

Liao

Xiao

et al. 2022

Self Cite

Habitat quality is an important indicator for assessing biodiversity and is critical to ecosystem processes. With urban development and construction in developing countries, habitat quality is increasingly influenced by landscape pattern changes. This has made habitat conservation to be an increasingly urgent issue. Despite the growing interest in this issue, studies that reveal the role of land use change in habitat degradation at multiple scales are still lacking. Therefore, we analyzed the spatial and temporal variations of habitat quality of the Three Gorges Reservoir area by the InVEST habitat quality model and demonstrated the responses of habitat quality to various landscape dynamics by correspondence analysis. The result showed that the habitat quality score of this area increased from 0.685 in 2000 to 0.739 in 2015 and presented a significant spatial heterogeneity. Habitat quality was significantly higher in the northeastern and southwestern parts of the reservoir area than in other regions. Meanwhile, habitat quality improved with altitude and slope, and increased for all altitude and slope zones. The habitat quality of >1000 m and >25° zone exceeds 0.8, while the habitat quality of <500 m and <15° zone is less than 0.6. Habitat quality significantly varied among landscape dynamics and was extremely sensitive to vegetation recovery and urban expansion. The vegetation restoration model of returning farmland to forest is difficult to sustain, so we suggest changing the vegetation recovery model to constructing complex vegetation community. This study helps us to better understand the effects of landscape pattern changes on habitat quality and can provide a scientific basis for formulating regional ecological conservation policies and sustainable use of land resources.

“…In this paper, the hierarchical agglomerative clustering method was used to cluster the future land use of different counties according to the similarity of the objects. Compared to other clustering methods, the agglomerative methods provide structured clustering with valuable information on the levels of similarity and relative distance between clusters [ 28 ]. Additionally, the Euclidean distance was used to calculate the similarity value between the territorial pattern of each county, which was used as a criterion to construct the clustering tree [ 26 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Territorial Pattern Evolution and Its Comprehensive Carrying Capacity Evaluation in the Coastal Area of Beibu Gulf, China

Lai

Gong

2022

Changes in the territorial pattern of the Beibu Gulf, an environmentally sensitive and ecologically fragile area in China, will directly or indirectly affect the regional ecological environment, while profoundly influencing economic development and human well-being. Therefore, it is significant to understand the ecological response in the process of territorial space changes in the Beibu Gulf to promote the coordination between sea and land and sustainable regional development. This paper used remote sensing image interpretation to generate land-use maps in 2000, 2010 and 2020, and then analyzed the spatial and temporal evolution of the territorial pattern of the Beibu Gulf from 2000 to 2020. Finally, this paper proposed a comprehensive carrying capacity evaluation system and explored the spatial functional zones of the coastal areas of the Beibu Gulf. The results showed that the demand for urban development and ecological protection between 2000 and 2020 increased built-up land and forestland by 386.71% and 25.56%, respectively, and reduced farmland by 28.33%. There was significant spatial heterogeneity in various land-use types. Where forestland is mainly distributed in the west, farmland is mainly distributed in the east, wetland is mainly distributed in the south, and orchards are spread throughout the whole area. The evaluation results of land resources, water resources and ecological conditions in the Beibu Gulf area showed that its comprehensive carrying capacity was high in the south and low in the north, and high in the west and low in the east. On this basis, this paper considered the actual situation of natural resources, ecological conditions, socio-economic development, protection and development in coastal areas; divided the study area into four categories: developed areas, priority development areas, ecological reserve areas and coastal reserve areas; and put forward corresponding control suggestions. The results of this paper could provide a scientific basis for regional development and territorial spatial planning in the coastal areas.