Abstract
Wetlands are one of the most critical resources in Inner Mongolia Plateau. However, the region has experienced severe wetland loss in the context of global change. To quantify the dynamic change and the related driving forces, we extracted wetland information using multi-temporal Landsat images between 1993 and 2013 using ArcGIS platform and man-machine interactive interpretation. Dynamically changing characteristics for the past 20 years were analyzed, including wetland types and spatial distribution patterns of the wetlands in Inner Mongolia. We also performed correlation analysis and generalized linear models to quantify the contribution of natural and human factors to the changes in natural wetland area. Our results indicated that the total area of wetlands was 42421.2 km2 in 1993, and decreased to 38912.4 km2 in 2013, a decline ratio of 8.3%. Meanwhile, all types of wetlands showed a trend of transformation into non-wetlands. Anthropogenic factors led to the loss of natural wetlands in Inner Mongolia. In grasslands, mining coal was the dominant driver for natural wetland loss, while in arable lands, agricultural encroachment and irrigation were the primary driving forces. These findings can provide meaningful information for improving sustainable wetlands management strategies according to local conditions in different sub-regions.
Highlights
Wetlands, the unique natural synthesis and water-land compound ecosystems, are one of the most significant ecological landscapes and human habitats on earth, playing a vital role in preventing drought and flood [1], regulating climate [2] and maintaining biodiversity [3]
Considering the fact that the dominant human activities related to natural wetland variation are significantly different in grasslands and cultivated areas, in which coal resources were mainly exploited in grasslands and agricultural activities were widely occurred in arable lands, we explored the major driving forces of natural wetland loss in grasslands and arable lands separately (Table 4)
The evolution was closely associated with human activities, while the driving forces of natural wetland change were divergent in different sub-regions: natural wetlands in grasslands decreased under the intensive human activities of coal mining, while in arable lands, natural wetland loss resulted from agricultural encroachment and irrigation
Summary
The unique natural synthesis and water-land compound ecosystems, are one of the most significant ecological landscapes and human habitats on earth, playing a vital role in preventing drought and flood [1], regulating climate [2] and maintaining biodiversity [3]. Wetland ecosystems have the highest value of ecological service in all kinds of ecosystems. Ecosystems provide various products and services for a total value of more than $ 33 trillion every year, of which the values contributed by costal and wetland ecosystems amounts to 15.5 trillion dollars [4]. In recent decades the area of natural wetlands has remarkably shrunk, the quality has increasingly declined and ecological functions have severely degraded [5,6,7].
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