Relationship between Urban Forest Fragmentation and Urban Shrinkage in China Differentiated by Moisture and Altitude

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Forest fragmentation and urban shrinkage have become the focus of attention in global ecological conservation, with the goal of achieving sustainable development. However, few studies have been concerned with urban forest patterns in shrinking cities. It is necessary to explore whether the loss of the population will mitigate urban forest degradation. Thus, in this study, 195 shrinking cities were identified based on demographic datasets to characterize the spatiotemporal patterns of urban forests in China against a depopulation background. To illustrate the explicit spatial evolution of urban forests in shrinking cities in China, in this study, we reclassified land-use products and determined the annual spatial variations from 2000 to 2022 using area-weighted centroids and landscape pattern indexes. The effects of different climatic and topographical conditions on the spatiotemporal variations in the urban forest patterns against population shrinkage were discussed. The results demonstrated that the forest coverage rate in the shrinking cities of China increased from 40.05 to 40.47% with a generally southwestern orientation, and the most frequent decrease appeared from 2010 to 2015. Except for the temperate humid and sub-humid Northeast China, with plains and hills, all geographical sub-regions of the shrinking cities exhibited growing urban forests. Relatively stable movement direction dynamics and dramatic area changes in climatic sub-regions with large forest coverage were observed. The urban forest centroids of shrinking cities at a lower elevation exhibited more fluctuating changes in direction. The urban forests in the shrinking cities of China were slightly fragmented, and this weakened condition was identified via the decelerating fragmentation. The urban forests of the shrinking cities in the warm-temperate, humid, and sub-humid North China and basin regions exhibited the most pattern variations. Therefore, it is emphasized that the monitoring of policy implementation is essential due to the time lag of national policies in shrinking cities, especially within humid and low-altitude regions. This research concludes that the mitigation of urban deforestation in the shrinking cities of China is greatly varied according to moisture and altitude and sheds light on the effects of the population density from a new perspective, providing support for urban forest management and improvements in the quality of residents’ lives.