Spatio-Temporal Patterns and Driving Forces of Desertification in Otindag Sandy Land, Inner Mongolia, China, in Recent 30 Years

Abstract

Desertification is one of the main obstacles to global sustainable development. Monitoring, evaluating and mastering its driving factors are very important for the prevention and control of desertification. As one of the largest deserts in China, the development of desertification in Otindag Sandy Land (OSL) resulted in the reduction in land productivity and serious ecological/environmental consequences. Although many ecological restoration projects have been carried out, the vegetation restoration of OSL and the impact mechanism of climate and human activities on desertification remain unclear. Methods: Taking OSL as the research area, this paper constructs the desertification index by using the remote sensing images and meteorological and socio-economic data, between 1986 and 2016, and analyzes the spatio-temporal evolution process and driving factors of desertification by using trend analysis and spearman rank correlation. Results: The results showed that: (1) Desertification in the OSL has fluctuated greatly during the past 30 years. Desertification recovered between 1986 and 1990, expanded and increased between 1990 and 2000, reduced between 2000 and 2004, developed rapidly between 2004 and 2007, and recovered again between 2007 and 2016; (2) The desertification of OSL is dominated by a non-significant change trend, accounting for 73.27%. In the significant change trend, the area of desertification rising trend is 20.32%, which is mainly located in the north and east, and the area of declining trend is 6.41%, which is mainly located in the southwest; (3) Desertification is the result of the superposition of climate and human activities. Climate change is the main influencing factor, followed by human activities, and the superposition effects of the two are spatio-temporal differences. Conclusions: These results shed light on the development of desertification in OSL and the relative importance and complex interrelationship between human activities and climate in regulating the process of desertification. Based on this, we suggest continuing to implement the ecological restoration policy and avoid the destruction of vegetation by large-scale animal husbandry in order to improve the situation of desertification.

Analysis of Spatial-Temporal Changes and Driving Forces of Desertification in the Mu Us Sandy Land from 1991 to 2021

“…China's desertification land covers 2.61 million km 2 , accounting for 27.20% of the total land area [8]. Serious desertification still exists in the Otindag Sandy Land [46], Tengger Desert [47], Horqin Sandy Land [48], Shiyang River basin [49], Otindag Sandy Land [50], etc.…”

Spatio-temporal Distribution and Transport Pathways Analysis of Sand and Dust Weather in North China

“…Presently, employing ground-based observation stations for the long-term continuous monitoring of PM 10 has proven effective in tracking dust weather phenomena. This method is extensively utilized across various countries [14,15], regions [16,17] and cities [13,18] for predicting and monitoring dust conditions [19].…”

“…North China stands out as one of China's most densely populated regions with vigorous industrial activities and economic development. Notably, there has been an uptick in the frequency of sand and dust weather phenomena during springtime over recent years [19]. Since March 2023 alone, there have been eight signi cant episodes of such weather conditions across China-the highest count for this period in over ten years.…”

Long-Term Dynamics of Sandy Vegetation and Land in North China

“…Duan et al [18] utilized high-resolution temporal continuous MODIS remote sensing data to focus on the dynamic changes in Horqin Sandy Land from 2000 to 2015. Various studies have demonstrated that the remote sensing index serves as an important indicator for monitoring dynamic changes in sandy lands through remote sensing [6,12,13,16,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], and remote sensing data monitoring methods have become the primary approach for monitoring the characteristics of sandy land changes. However, owing to the influence of NDVI changes on the FVC, which is affected by meteorological conditions, there may be some randomness in the dynamic characteristics of sand changes during isolated years (such as a sudden increase in precipitation in the sand area that year, leading to a contraction in the area of sand monitored by the FVC).…”