The Effects of Land cover/Land Use Change on Ecosystem Functions in Semi-arid Inner Mongolia
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: The semi-arid grasslands in Inner Mongolia (IM) are under increasing stress owing to climate change and rapid socio-economic development in the recent past.We investigated changes in land cover/land use and landscape structure between 1992 and 2004 through the analysis of AVHRR and MODIS derived land cover data.The scale of analysis included the regional level (i.e., the entire IM) as well as the level of the dominant biomes (i.e., the grassland and desert).We quantified proportional change, rate of change and the changes in class-level landscape metrics using the landscape structure analysis program, FRAGSTATS.The dominant land cover, grassland and barren, 0.47 and 0.27 million km 2 respectively, have increased proportionally.Cropland and urban land use also increased to 0.15 million km 2 and 2197 km 2 respectively.However, the results further indicated in both the homogeneity and fragmentation of the landscape.Increasing homogeneity was mainly related with the reduction in minority cover types such as savanna, forests and permanent wetlands and increasing cohesion, aggregation index and clumpy indices.Conversely, increased fragmentation of the landscape was based on the increase in patch density and the interspersion/juxtaposition index (IJI).It is important to note the socio-economic growth in this fragile ecosystem, manifested by an increasing proportion of agricultural and urban land use not just at the regional level but also at the biome level in the context of regional climate change and increasing water stress.
Author: Ranjeet John
Institution: University of Toledo
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2241449537