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| DOI：10.13522/j.cnki.ggps.2019106 |
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| Change in Land Use and Its Consequence for Ecological Systems in Weigan-Kuqa River Basin in Xinjiang |
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HOU Yifeng, WANG Yang*, ZHANG Shuai
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College of Grassland and Environment Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Key Laboratory of Grassland Resources and Ecology of Xinjiang, Urumqi 830052, China
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| Abstract: |
| 【Background】Land use change and its determinants are important in understanding the global environment change and have attracted increased attention over the past few decades. Exacerbated by global warming and exploitation of water and soil since 1990, water resource scarcity and ecological system deterioration in Weigan-kuqa River Basin has become a major issue in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The conflict between protecting ecosystem functions and developing economy raised concern. With the rapid socioeconomic development and the consequent increase in anthropogenic activities, a significant part of grasslands and vacant lands in this basin had been converted to cropland. This has substantially increased the demand for the already dwindling water resource, making the local ecosystems even more fragile.【Objective】The objective of this paper is to study the change in land use and vegetation coverage as well as its consequence for ecology in oasis in the Weigan-Kuqa River Basin in order to improve water resource use efficiency and develop sustainable land use in this region.【Method】The data used in the analysis were derived from visual interpretation of the Landsat TM remote sensing imageries at resolution of 30m from 1990 to 2014, and accuracy of the data was verified against ground-truth data. Spatiotemporal change in land use and vegetation coverage as well as their ecological consequence were analyzed based on the land use dynamic index, entropy and equilibrium degree of the land use structure, and the ecosystem service value.【Result】Land use in the basin had changed greatly from 1990 to 2014, with the croplands increasing at 53.1% at rate of 255.70 km2/year and the grasslands reducing by 23.55%. The greatest change was in the middle reaches of the Weigan River and the downstream reaches of the Kuqa River, where significant parts of grasslands and vacant lands had been converted to arable land. It was also found that the information entropy and equilibrium, along with the population, both had increased, with the expansion of the oasis reducing the ecological service value by 19.78% from 1990 to 2014. However, the oasis had become increasingly unstable, endangering ecological security of the basin.【Conclusion】Along with global warming, converting grasslands and vacant lands to farmlands had reduced the ecological service value and given rise to ecological degradation in the basin. This had aggravated grassland degradation and even led to desertification, endangering safety and stability of the oasis and the ecological security and sustainable development of the basin. |
| Key words: change in land usage; ecological effect; Weigan-Kuqa river basin; desertification |
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