Abstract
The forest landscape pattern evolution can reveal the intensity and mode of action of human–land relationships at different times and in different spaces, providing scientific support for regional ecological security, human settlement health, and sustainable development. In this study, we proposed a novel method for analyzing the dynamics of landscape patterns. First, patch density (PD), largest patch index (LPI), landscape shape index (LSI), and contiguity index (CI) were used to identify the types of forest spatial patterns. The frequent sequential pattern mining method was used to detect the frequent subsequences from the time series of landscape pattern types from 1991 to 2020 and further evaluate the forest landscape stability of the Fenhe River Basin in China. The results show that different frequent sequence patterns have conspicuous spatial and temporal differences, which describe the evolution processes and stability changes during a certain period of forest evolution and play an important role in the analysis of forest dynamics. The proportion of the disturbed regions to the total forest area exhibited a downward trend. The long-term evolution pattern indicates that there are many evolution processes and trends in the forest at the same time, showing an aggregation distribution law. Compared with 2016, the forest landscape has become complete in 2020, and the overall stability of the Fenhe River Basin has improved. This study can provide scientific support to land managers and policy implementers and offer a new perspective for studying forest landscape pattern changes and evaluating landscape stability.
Highlights
The forest landscape is composed of forest ecosystems as the main body [1]
We proposed a new method for detecting dynamic changes in landscape patterns
The temporal and spatial dimensions were considered to describe the evolution of forest landscape patterns simultaneously
Summary
The forest landscape is composed of forest ecosystems as the main body [1]. Due to the joint action of a variety of ecological processes (such as long-term mining activities, serious soil erosion, and a series of ecological restoration projects), which have a significant impact on landscape function, process, formation, and structure [2,3,4], the forest landscape of theFenhe River Basin in China changes frequently and has a high degree of temporal and spatial heterogeneity [5,6,7]. The fragmentation, degradation, and loss of forest landscape caused by disturbance may threaten many ecosystems and processes [8] and even limit the diffusion of some species in the ecosystem [9]. The loss of biodiversity reduces the frequency and capacity of ecosystem services and hinders the cycle of the ecosystem [10]. Compared with connected forests, large-scale fragmented forests may be more vulnerable to stress and have lower resilience. These can destabilize the entire system, which can further weaken the resistance of the system to extreme environments and disaster events (floods and droughts) [11,12]. The greater the degree of landscape fragmentation, the lower is its stability. It is necessary to understand the landscape stability of the
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