The causes and processes responsible for rocky desertification in karst areas of southern China

The karst region of southern China is a fragile ecological zone with widespread rocky desertification. This paper describes the rocky desertification occurring in this region in terms of both natural and anthropogenic factors. During geological time periods, the region's changing environment governed the natural rocky desertification processes, whereas during historical and modern times, anthropogenic processes have been superimposed on these natural processes. Human activities have accelerated and exacerbated rocky desertification. The period from the beginning to the middle of the Qing dynasty was an important transitional period in which human activities began to exert a particularly strong influence on rocky desertification. Since then, the effect of anthropogenic factors has increasingly exceeded the effect of natural factors. The rocky desertification process in southern China's karst region combines surface ecological processes ( including vegetation degradation and loss, soil erosion, surface water loss, and bedrock solution) with a reduction of the land's biological productivity, leading to degradation that produces rocky desert. Controlling rocky desertification requires comprehensive development of sustainable agriculture and economic development that provides employment alternatives to agriculture and thereby promotes the rehabilitation of rocky desertified land.