Abstract
Ecosystem restoration has been widely concerned with the damage and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. Scientific and reasonable formulations of ecological restoration zoning is the basis for the formulation of an ecological restoration plan. In this study, a restoration zoning index system was proposed to comprehensively consider the ecological problems of ecosystems. The linear weighted function method was used to construct the ecological restoration index (ERI) as an important index of zoning. The research showed that: (1) the ecological restoration zones of the Qilian Mountains can be divided into eight basins, namely the headwaters of the Datong River Basin, the Danghe-Dahaerteng River Basin, the northern confluence area of the Qinghai Lake, the upper Shule River to middle Heihe River, the Oasis Agricultural Area in the northern foothills of the Qilian Mountain, the Huangshui Basin Valley, Aksay (corridor region of the western Hexi Basin), and the northeastern Tsaidam Basin; (2) the restoration index of the eight ecological restoration zones of the Qilian Mountains was between 0.34–0.8, with an average of 0.61 (the smaller the index, the more prominent the comprehensive ecological problem representing the regional mountains, rivers, forests, cultivated lands, lakes, and grasslands, and thus the greater the need to implement comprehensive ecological protection and restoration projects); and (3) the ecological problems of different ecological zones are frequently numerous, and often show the phenomenon of multiple overlapping ecological problems in the same zone.
Highlights
The cultivated lands in the Qilian Mountains are mainly distributed between Ganzhou, Minle, Yongchang, Shandan, and Gulang in the northeast and Huzhu, Ledu, and Minle mainly distributed in Qilian and Menyuan in the central region
Many scholars have carried out ecological vulnerability [38] and ecological security assessments [39], as well as other related studies to provide decisionmaking guidelines based on ecological protection and restoration by identifying important and key areas of ecological restoration [40]
This study proposed a comprehensive diagnosis method for identifying ecological problems, and a comprehensive restoration zoning method based on different ecosystem problems, which can provide better technical support for the implementation of ecological restoration projects
Summary
Ecosystems as a whole connect biological organisms and the inorganic environment through a variety of ecological functions, which feature comprehensive, holistic, and systematic characteristics. The unreasonable use of natural resources has caused many ecological problems, such as soil erosion, land desertification, and the degradation of forest and grass vegetation. Many ecological problems have caused widespread concern for the restoration of ecosystems. For the formulation of ecological restoration plans in a scientific and reasonable manner, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze the problems existing in ecosystems and identify the key restoration areas. From this point of view, the demarcation of ecological restoration zoning is of great significance
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