Study of Spatiotemporal Changes and Driving Factors of Habitat Quality: A Case Study of the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone in Northern Shaanxi, China

Abstract

Habitat quality is a key indicator for assessing the biodiversity-maintenance functions of ecosystem services. The issue of habitat quality changes in semi-arid and arid areas has been becoming serious, but there are few deep investigations of habitat quality in these regions, such as studies of the temporal and spatial changes of habitat quality and its driving forces. This study focuses on the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern Shaanxi with vulnerable biodiversity. By using the Fragstats software, the InVEST model, and the Geo-detector model, we analyzed land-use data collected from 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, and we explored the landscape pattern index, the spatial and temporal variation of habitat quality, and the influence of its drivers. GDP, population density, precipitation, temperature, land use, NDVI, elevation, and slope were detected by Geo-detector. The research results show that: (1) Arable land and grassland were the dominant land types from 1990 to 2020, and there was significant mutual circulation between arable land and grassland. Forest area increased by 24%. Many other land-use types were transformed into construction land, and construction land increased by 727% compared with the base period. (2) Landscape heterogeneity increased in the study region, shown by the fractured structure of the overall landscape and by the aggravated human disturbance of the landscape. (3) Average habitat quality underwent a trend of oscillation. Regarding spatial distribution, habitat quality was higher in the east than in the west. (4) The influencing factors of habitat quality monitored by Geo-detectors show that the driving force of land use on habitat quality was the strongest, followed by precipitation and vegetation coverage. Elevation, slope, GDP, and population density had the least influence on habitat quality. The bi-factor interaction enhanced habitat quality to different levels. This study is critical to the conservation of biodiversity and to ecological civilization construction in arid and semi-arid regions.

Impact of Agricultural Use of Sand Land on Water Yield Services under Different Development Intensities in the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone of Northern Shaanxi

“…It is adjacent to Gansu Province and Ningxia Province in the south, connected to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north, and bounded by the Yellow River with Shanxi Province in the east. In terms of administrative division, there are two ways to divide the scope of the ANS [32,37,38]. Combined with the AUSL, this study adopts the division accepted by more scholars, which includes six counties (or districts) in the northern part of Yulin City, from west to east, namely, Dingbian, Jingbian, Hengshan, Yuyang, Shenmu, and Fugu.…”

Spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of land use and habitat quality in Shandong Province, China

“…For example, urban expansion significantly disrupted the natural habitat, leading to habitat fragmentation and degradation 24 – 26 . Besides, natural environment (topography, climate) and land use type also significantly influence the change of habitat quality 27 – 29 . The influences of such natural factors are relatively fixed, while land use categories are affected by a wide range of human activities.…”

Risk Monitoring Level of Stope Slopes and Landslides in High-Altitude and Cold Mines

“…Based on the iron-bearing deposits being developed by Xinjiang Hejing County Beizhan Mining Co., Ltd., this paper conducts a comprehensive analysis and research on the factors affecting slope landslides. Based on existing research, the freeze-thaw cycle factors under high-altitude and high-cold conditions are integrated to comprehensively judge the landslide risk level of stope slopes in cold areas [21][22][23][24]. The disaster mechanism of a high-cold freeze-thaw slope is shown in Figure 1.…”