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Spatiotemporal variations in ecological quality of Otindag Sandy Land based on a new modified remote sensing ecological index

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Abstract

Otindag Sandy Land in China is an important ecological barrier to Beijing; the changes in its ecological quality are major concerns for sustainable development and planning of this area. Based on principal component analysis and path analysis, we first generated a modified remote sensing ecological index (MRSEI) coupled with satellite and ground observational data during 2001–2020 that integrated four local indicators (greenness, wetness, and heatness that reflect vegetation status, water, and heat conditions, respectively, as well as soil erosion). Then, we assessed the ecological quality in Otindag Sandy Land during 2001–2020 based on the MRSEI at different time scales (i.e., the whole year, growing season, and non-growing season). MRSEI generally increased with an upward rate of 0.006/a during 2001–2020, with clear seasonal and spatial variations. Ecological quality was significantly improved in most regions of Otindag Sandy Land but degraded in the southern part. Regions with ecological degradation expanded to 18.64% of the total area in the non-growing season. The area with the worst grade of MRSEI shrunk by 15.83% of the total area from 2001 to 2020, while the area with the best grade of MRSEI increased by 9.77% of the total area. The temporal heterogeneity of ecological conditions indicated that the improvement process of ecological quality in the growing season may be interrupted or deteriorated in the following non-growing season. The implementation of ecological restoration measures in Otindag Sandy Land should not ignore the seasonal characteristics and spatial heterogeneity of local ecological quality. The results can explore the effectiveness of ecological restoration and provide scientific guides on sustainable development measures for drylands.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial support given by the Special Funds for Science and Technology Innovation on Carbon Peak Carbon Neutral of Jiangsu Province, China (BK20220017), the Innovation Development Project of China Meteorological Administration (CXFZ2023J073), and the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1506606).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters/Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Xiaohan Zhao, Dianchen Han & Fangmin Zhang

  2. Institute of Desertification, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China

    Qi Lu

  3. Ecology and Agricultural Meteorology Center of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hohhot, 010051, China

    Yunpeng Li

Authors
  1. Xiaohan Zhao
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  2. Dianchen Han
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  3. Qi Lu
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  4. Yunpeng Li
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  5. Fangmin Zhang
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Contributions

Conceptualization: ZHAO Xiaohan, HAN Dianchen, ZHANG Fangmin; Methodology: ZHAO Xiaohan, HAN Dianchen; Formal analysis: ZHAO Xiaohan, HAN Dianchen; Writing - original draft preparation: ZHAO Xiaohan, HAN Dianchen, ZHANG Fangmin; Writing - review and editing: ZHAO Xiaohan, ZHANG Fangmin; Funding acquisition: LU Qi, LI Yunpeng, ZHANG Fangmin; Resources: LI Yunpeng, ZHANG Fangmin; Supervision: LU Qi, ZHANG Fangmin.

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Correspondence to Fangmin Zhang.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Zhao, X., Han, D., Lu, Q. et al. Spatiotemporal variations in ecological quality of Otindag Sandy Land based on a new modified remote sensing ecological index. J. Arid Land 15, 920–939 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-023-0065-9

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