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Spatial heterogeneous response of land use and landscape functions to ecological restoration: the case of the Chinese loess hilly region

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Abstract

Ecological restorations over time may have profound effects on ecological and socio-economic systems. However, land-use changes and landscape functions that accompany ecological restorations can have spatial differentiations due to varied biophysical and socio-economic contexts. Therefore, these spatial differentiations caused by ecological restoration must be understood for better planning and management of restoration activities. The Baota District, with 576 villages in the center of the Chinese Loess Plateau, was selected as the study area because of its dramatic transition from cropland to grassland and shrubland from 1990 to 2010. Using the ArcGIS software and a k-means clustering analysis, an approach to identify types of land-use change patterns (TLCPs) at the village level was developed, and four TLCPs were delineated. The analysis indicated a general pattern of cropland decline by 21.6 %, but revealed significant spatial variations between villages in different TLCPs. Vegetation cover and soil retention, which are key proxies for landscape functions, increased by 22.70 and 108 %, respectively, from 2000 to 2010 with significant spatial heterogeneity. The Universal Soil Loss Equation was employed for the assessment of soil retention. The analysis of landscape metrics revealed a major trend of fragmentation and regularity on the county and village scale; however, spatial variations remained. Physical attributes were used to characterize different TLCPs, and notable differences were found. The spatial heterogeneous change in land use and landscape functions on the village scale may be useful for land use and ecological restoration management policy makers.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41171156), the External Cooperation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. GJHZ1215), and K.C. Wong Education Foundation, Hong Kong.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 2871, Beijing, 100085, China

    Jianglei Wang, Yihe Lü, Liwei Zhang & Bojie Fu

  2. Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yuan Zeng

  3. College of Landscape Architecture and Forestry, Qingdao Agricultural University, 700 Great Wall Road, Chengyang District, Qingdao, 266109, Shandong, China

    Zhijiang Zhao

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  1. Jianglei Wang
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  2. Yihe Lü
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  3. Yuan Zeng
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  5. Liwei Zhang
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Correspondence to Yihe Lü.

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Wang, J., Lü, Y., Zeng, Y. et al. Spatial heterogeneous response of land use and landscape functions to ecological restoration: the case of the Chinese loess hilly region. Environ Earth Sci 72, 2683–2696 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3175-z

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