Impacts of landscape dynamics on terrestrial ecosystem health in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

Abstract

Forest landscapes changed notably due to natural disturbances and human activities, and are threatened by environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Evaluating terrestrial ecosystem health is beneficial for promoting vegetation protection and restoration efforts. This study analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution of three landscapes (i.e., natural/semi-natural vegetation, agricultural vegetation, and non-vegetation landscapes) of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) from 1990 to 2020, and explored their impacts for terrestrial ecosystem health (EH) which was estimated by vigor-organization-resilience (V–O-R) model. The results demonstrated that terrestrial EH improved during 1990–2020 because of the increasing natural/semi-natural vegetation landscapes of >1000m and >25° areas. Regions of higher EH levels were the northern and eastern counties dominated by natural/semi-natural vegetation, while regions of lower EH levels were the middle counties dominated by agricultural and non-vegetation landscapes. The relationships between natural/semi-natural vegetation landscape and EH were positive, while agricultural and non-vegetation landscapes were negatively related to EH. Moreover, climate and socioeconomic factors exerted a negative correlation with EH, while soil and topography factors were positively correlated with EH. Our findings support the importance of considering landscape dynamics in promoting ecological restoration and enhancing EH, providing scientific references for ensuring sustainable development of the TGRA and other similar ecological vulnerable regions.