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Arid Land Geography ›› 2021, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (4): 992-1002.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000–6060.2021.04.12

• Earth Surface Process • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatial-temporal variation and driving mechanism of desertification in Hunshandake (Otindag) Sandy Land in recent 30 years

TONG Liga1(),NING Xiaoli2(),ZHANG Jing3,4,ZHANG Xuefeng2   

  1. 1. College of Architecture, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116600, Liaoning, China
    2. College of Resources and Environment, Baotou Normal College, Baotou 014030, Inner Mongolia, China
    3. College of Environment and Resources, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116600, Liaoning, China
    4. School of Geography, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, Liaoning, China
  • Received:2020-05-19 Revised:2020-07-24 Online:2021-07-25 Published:2021-08-02
  • Contact: Xiaoli NING E-mail:tongliga113@126.com;1725342463@qq.com

Abstract:

The Hunshandake Sandy Land, as one of the most serious desertification areas in northern China, has been listed as a national key ecological environment construction area. A series of policies to control sand dust sources and restore the ecological environment in the Hunshandake Sandy Land has been implemented, such as returning farmland to forest and grassland and forbidding and restricting grazing, so as to curb the development momentum of desertification and improve the regional ecological environment. However, the ecological environment of the Hunshandake Sandy Land is fragile and, coupled with significant climate change, unreasonable land use patterns, excessive reclamation, grazing, and other phenomena, has not completely improved, resulting in the ecological environment of the area still facing problems. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the process of desertification and its influencing factors. The desertification index was calculated and the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of desertification were studied in five remote sensing imagery periods of the Hunshandake Sandy Land from 1985 to 2017 using eCognition 9.0 and an object-oriented computer automatic classification method; further, the driving mechanism of desertification was studied using principal component analysis. In this paper, the research period of the Hunshandake Sandy Land desertification has been extended, the data have been updated (desertification data for 2017 were added), and the driving mechanism research has been synchronized with the desertification cycle. The results show that the desertification land area of the Hunshandake Sandy Land increased and then decreased over the last 30 years, with a turning point in 2002. The area of mild desertification first decreased and then increased (from 42.1% to 20.9% and then to 32.1%), mainly in the east. Moderate desertification tended to increase gradually (from 20.6% to 39.0%) and is distributed in the central region. However, severe desertification decreased from 30.3% to 22.6%. Extreme desertification first increased and then decreased, increasing from 7.0% to 16.0% and then decreasing to 6.3%, and is distributed in the west and southwest and has gradually moved to the northwest. Overall, the spatial distribution of the desertification degree decreases from west to east. The development process of desertification in the Hunshandake Sandy Land has been greatly influenced by human factors, while natural factors play an auxiliary role. Of the human factors, the contribution rate of total population, GDP, and three industries to the principal component is higher than 0.9, while the contribution rates of the livestock carrying capacity and cultivated land area have reached 0.694 and 0.803, respectively, having a significant impact on desertification. Increasing precipitation and decreasing wind speed can alleviate desertification to some extent. The contribution rates of precipitation and the annual maximum wind speed to the principal component are 0.851 and 0.957, respectively. The land contract responsibility system implemented in 1980 and a series of ecological and environmental protection policies implemented by the state after 2000 play a key role in the Hunshandake Sandy Land switching from growth to mitigation. Therefore, in the process of desertification control, we need to implement policies of returning farmland to forest and grass and grazing prohibition and restriction to decrease the desertification of the Hunshandake Sandy Land and to promote the healthy development of the regional ecological environment.

Key words: desertification, spatial-temporal characteristics, driving mechanism, Hunshandake Sandy Land