Abstract
Assessing the health of the ecosystem based on the landscape pattern of national parks can facilitate policy makers in formulating more targeted conservation policies to better manage national park ecosystems. To analyze the landscape patterns and characteristics of the national park, the ecosystem health evaluation index system of the national park was constructed using the vigor-organization-resilience (VOR) model to evaluate the health status. In this study, the Shennongjia National Park in China was selected as a case study area to be assessed using the index system. The results revealed that the patches of construction land and farmland are the largest in number and the most complex in shape, reflecting the obvious fragmentation of construction land and farmland patches. All patch types in this national park were evenly distributed. The results of the analysis showed that the comprehensive index of national park heath, according to the VOR model, is 0.74, indicating that the ecosystems in this study area were in a good state of health. Ecosystems in strictly protected areas of this park had the highest ecosystem health index levels, while the traditional utilization areas had the lowest. Ecosystem health levels were characterized by significant spatial agglomeration characteristics, with high-high aggregation distribution areas, mainly clustered in strictly protected areas, and low-low aggregation distribution, mainly clustered in traditional utilization areas and marginal areas. This study provided a set of ecosystem health assessment systems and their practical use in China’s newly established national parks.
Highlights
Maintaining the health of natural ecosystems at a high level can provide adequate and sustainable material support for the development of human society [1]
The ecosystem health condition of Shennongjia National Park is at a good health level, mainly because, before establishing it, the National Nature Reserve, National Forest Park, World Natural Heritage Site, National Geological Park as well as Dajiuhu National Wetland
This study highlights the importance of the ecosystem health assessment approach based on the landscape pattern characteristic of exploring the ecosystem health status in Shennongjia National Park
Summary
Maintaining the health of natural ecosystems at a high level can provide adequate and sustainable material support for the development of human society [1]. Most of the ecosystem health studies of various natural protected areas mainly focus on the assessment of the temporal or the process changes of ecosystem health, and there is a lack of ecosystem health studies based on landscape pattern analysis [28]. There have been no studies on ecosystem health assessment based on landscape pattern in Shennongjia National Park. Park as a case study and selects VOR model to establish the ecosystem health assessment system based on landscape pattern analysis. Based on landscape pattern characteristics, the VOR model was used to study the ecosystem health level, and Arcgis software was used to assess the distribution features of ecosystem health level in Shento assess the distribution features of ecosystem health level in Shennongjia National Park nongjia National Park in China
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