Spatial and Temporal Variations in the Ecological Vulnerability of Northern China

Abstract

Ecological vulnerability is the focus of research on global environmental impact, regional sustainable development, ecological civilization, and green development. There are eight deserts and four sandy lands in northern China. The ecological environment is sensitive to climate change and human activities. It is of great significance to carry out long-term sequential ecological vulnerability assessments. Therefore, taking northern China as the research area, this paper selects 13 data indicators such as climate, topography, and soil based on the ecological sensitivity-ecological recovery-ecological pressure model (SPR) and uses the spatial principal component analysis method (SPCA) to quantitatively evaluate the spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics and driving forces of ecological vulnerability in this area from 1980 to 2020. The results showed that areas with extreme, severe, and moderate vulnerability dominated northern China, accounting for 74.58% of the total area. The analysis revealed a decrease in ecological vulnerability from west to east and north to south. Meanwhile, from the perspective of timing, the overall level of ecological vulnerability showed an upward trend before 2000, and the overall level of ecological vulnerability continued to decline after 2000, and the quality of the ecological environment improved. During the study period, areas in northern China with severe vulnerability and slight vulnerability showed a change of 15.53% and -14.01%, respectively. The main reason for the change in ecological vulnerability is the frequent transformation between forest land, grassland, water, and cultivated land. In addition, the study found a spatial autocorrelation of ecological vulnerability of northern China and a significantly positive correlation. After 2000, the spatial aggregation of vulnerability was high-high cluster, which was mainly distributed in northwest China. The study’s findings will provide a robust scientific basis for ecosystem management and sustainable development.

Soil Organic Matter Inversion Based on Imaging Spectral Data in Straw‐Covered Noncultivated Land

“…The results of this study show that the accuracy of polynomial function was better than partial least squares regression, which is consistent with the previous studies [27,28]. The results also show that there is a strong correlation between the spectral reflectivity of the soil and the soil organic matter content [29,30]. The study also determined a significant linear correlation between the "bow curvature difference" and the organic matter content.…”

Eco-Environment Quality Response to Climate Change and Human Activities on the Loess Plateau, China

“…According to the report of IPCC [4], the average global temperature has risen by 0.85 • C between 1880 and 2012, and the 20th century may be the warmest in the last millennium. Since the last century, economic development in Northwest China has caused a profound transformation of land use [5,6], and ecological vulnerability and instability have been further aggravated by strong spatial heterogeneity [7]. The research indicates that the gravity of ecological environment quality (EEQ) change in China has been shifting to the west continuously over the past decades [8].…”

Evaluation of the Spatiotemporal Change of Ecological Quality under the Context of Urban Expansion—A Case Study of Typical Urban Agglomerations in China

“…PCA continues to exhibit outstand-ing advantages in reducing redundant information and dimensionality in data. In the field of ecological remote sensing, refinements, such as spatial principal component analysis, are gradually being improved and applied to enhance ecological monitoring [21].…”