Abstract
Land-cover and land-use change (LCLUC) alters landscape patterns and affects regional ecosystems. The objective of this study was to examine LCLUC and landscape patterns in Ebinur Lake Wetland National Nature Reserve (ELWNNR) and Ganjia Lake Haloxylon Forest National Nature Reserve (GLHFNNR), two biodiversity-rich national nature reserves in the Ebinur Lake Watershed (ELW), Xinjiang, China. Landsat satellite images from 1972, 1998, 2007 and 2013 were used to calculate the dynamics of a land-cover and land-use (LCLU) transition matrix and landscape pattern index using ENVI 5.1 and FRAGSTATS 3.3. The results showed drastic land use modifications have occurred in ELWNNR during the past four decades. Between 1972 and 1998, 1998 and 2007, and 2007 and 2013, approximately 251.50 km2 (7.93%), 122.70 km2 (3.87%), and 195.40 km2 (6.16%) of wetland were turned into salinized land. In GLHFNNR both low and medium density Haloxylon forest area declined while high density Haloxylon forest area increased. This contribution presents a method for characterizing LCLUC using one or more cross-tabulation matrices based on Sankey diagrams, demonstrating the depiction of flows of energy or materials through ecosystem network. The ecological landscape index displayed that a unique landscape patches have shrunk in size, scattered, and fragmented. It becomes a more diverse landscape. Human activities like farming were negatively correlated with the landscape diversity of wetlands. Furthermore, evidence of degraded wetlands caused by air temperature and annual precipitation, was also observed. We conclude that national and regional policies related to agriculture and water use have significantly contributed to the extensive changes; the ELWNNR and GLHFNNR are highly susceptible to LCLUC in the surrounding Ebinur Lake Watershed.
Highlights
Land-cover and land-use (LCLU) has been a traditional and important research topic in both local and global environmental studies [1,2]
It is well known that human activities and natural processes often accelerate the speed of Land-cover and land-use change (LCLUC) [9,10]
The Shannon evenness index is applied to describe the evenness of the patch types
Summary
Land-cover and land-use (LCLU) has been a traditional and important research topic in both local and global environmental studies [1,2]. It is widely acknowledged that LCLUC is a primary cause of the current global biodiversity crisis, mostly through its effects on habitat quality. Numerous studies have reported that LCLUC is the main cause for species extinction worldwide, and results in species replacement and biotic homogenization or differentiation [3,4]. Habitat fragmentation has become one of the main threats to biodiversity at local, regional and global scales and is causing LCLUC [5,6], as well as causing increasing rarity of species and driving many species toward extinction [3,7,8]. Human factors and natural factors are considered as major driving factors of LCLUC in current study
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