Abstract
As an important agricultural and gathering area in arid inland areas of China, the ecological environments of oasis areas are more sensitive to regional climate change and human activities. This paper investigates the dynamic evolution of the oases in the Tarim River basin (TRB) and quantitatively evaluates the regional ecological security of oases via a remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and net primary productivity (NPP) through the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford approach (CASA) from 2000 to 2020. The results indicate that the total plain oasis area in the TRB during the study period experienced an increasing trend, with the area expanding by 8.21%. Specifically, the artificial oases (cultivated and industrial land) showed a notable increase, whereas the natural oases (forests and grassland) exhibited an apparent decrease. Among the indictors of oasis change, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) increased from 0.13 to 0.16, the fraction of vegetation cover (FVC) expanded by 36.79%, and NPP increased by 31.55%. RSEI changes indicated that the eco-environment of the TRB region went from poor grade to general grade; 69% of the region’s eco-environment improved, especially in western mountainous areas, and less than 5% of the regions’ eco-ecological areas were degraded, mainly occurring in the desert-oasis ecotone. Changes in land- use types of oases indicated that human activities had a more significant influence on oases expansion than natural factors. Our results have substantial implications for environment protection and sustainable economic development along the Silk Road Economic Belt.
Highlights
Oases are the most ecologically sensitive and unique landscape type in arid and semiarid regions
Is crucial to desertification control, oasis expansion, the security of oasis ecosystems, and this study investigated the spatial-temporal dynamics of oases in the Tarim River basin (TRB) by exploring ecological civilisation construction along the the spatial-temporal variation in eco-environmental quality based on several indictors of this study investigated the spatial-temporal dynamics of oases in the TRB by exploring the oasis (NDVI, fraction of vegetation cover (FVC) and land use) and the digital elevation model (DEM) from 2000 to 2020 spatial-temporal variation in eco-environmental quality based on several indictors of oasis and evaluating the ecological security according to the net primary productivity (NPP) and remote sensing ecological index (RSEI)
Compared with other remote sensing (RS) methods, the FVC calculated by Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) does not need a regression model, and it is not limited by the region or spatial, temporal and vegetation type; this approach has been widely used in the plains and mountain regions of the world, as well as arid and semi-arid regions, e.g., Central Asia [43], China [44,45] and the TRB [46–48]
Summary
Oases are the most ecologically sensitive and unique landscape type in arid and semiarid regions. These complex and fragile geographical and ecological environments feed onethird of the world’s production and support economic activities [1,2]. The oases can be regarded as the ocean on the earth [8]; they have a significant cooling effect in dry and hot seasons [9–11] and play an important role in the economic development of arid areas. Owing to global warming and human activities, the desertification process in arid areas has intensified [12–15], and the ecological resources and environments of oases have undergone significant changes [16]. The development of oases has changed the spatiotemporal distribution of water resources in arid areas [18], Sustainability 2022, 14, 3372.
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