Abstract
The increase in ecological risks caused by human activities has become a global concern in recent years. The Landscape Ecological Risk Index based on the theory of landscape ecology is more suitable for assessing large-scale ecological risks. Assessing landscape ecological risks and the mechanisms by which humans directly or indirectly affect them will help to manage and control the regions’ ecological risks through scientific and policy methods. In this study, a new model of landscape ecological risk assessment based on the moving window method is proposed. The Loess Plateau of China is used as an example, and the Human Footprint Index dataset of the Loess Plateau is constructed. Different human footprint factors and climate factors are applied, and the human direct and indirect effects on the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau are explored based on the geographical detector model. The results show that, in 2000, 2010 and 2020, the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau are currently in an unstable state, and the highest value area of the Landscape Ecological Risk Index continues to expand, with values of 113,566.1553 km2, 114,575.6772 km2 and 120,718.5363 km2, respectively. Among all the human footprint factors, the population density factor has the highest effect on the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau. Among the climate factors, both the average temperature factor and the average lagged temperature factor have significant effects on the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau. With the interaction of any two human footprint factors and climate factors, the effect of these factors on the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau is enhanced.
Highlights
Ecosystems provide the essential material foundation and ecological services for human survival and development [1,2,3]
A window that is of too large a size will cause the resultant layer to be too blurred, and a window that is of too small a size will cause the calculation to grow exponentially
The Landscape Ecological Risk Index (LERI) construction based on the moving window method achieved the expected effect, and the LERI of the Loess Plateau was constructed at a higher resolution scale
Summary
Ecosystems provide the essential material foundation and ecological services for human survival and development [1,2,3]. As the pressure on ecosystems from human activities continues to rise on a global scale, human activities have become the most important factor in ecosystem degradation [4]. The root causes of the various ecological problems that continue to emerge on a global scale point to human activities [4,5,6,7,8], such as ecological risks [9]. Assessing, managing, and solving these problems is increasingly becoming a popular topic in ecology, geography, and other disciplines [10]. The pressure of human activities on ecosystems is large-scale, and multifaceted, with a complex mechanism, and has positive and negative influences [11]. Multidisciplinary research and collaboration among organizations are needed to sort out and alleviate these problems
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