Spatial pattern reconstruction of regional habitat quality based on the simulation of land use changes from 1975 to 2010

Reconstruction of the spatial pattern of regional habitat quality can revivify the ecological environment background at certain historical periods and provide scientific support for revealing the evolution of regional ecological environmental quality. In this study, we selected 10 driving factors of land use changes, including elevation, slope, aspect, GDP, population, temperature, precipitation, river distance, urban distance, and coastline distance, to construct the CA-Markov model parameters and acquired the land use spatial data for 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, and 1995 by simulation based on the land use status map for 2010. On this basis, we used the InVEST model to reconstruct the spatial pattern of habitat quality in the study area and conducted classification division and statistical analysis on the computed habitat degradation degree index and the habitat quality index. (1) The results showed that from 1975 to 2010, the habitat degradation degree gradually increased, and the habitat degradation grade spatially presented a layered progressive distribution. Habitat quality presented a constantly decreasing trend. The high-value zones were mainly distributed in the mountainous areas, while the low-value zones were mostly located in built-up areas. During the period of 1975-2010, low-value zones gradually expanded to their surrounding high-value zones, and the high-value zones of habitat quality tended to be fragmented. (2) The spatial-temporal variation characteristics of habitat quality from 1975 to 2010 showed that the regions with low habitat quality were difficult to be restored and mostly maintained their original state; the regions with poor habitat quality, which accounted for 6.40% of the total study area, continued to deteriorate, mainly around built-up areas; the regions with good and superior habitat quality, which accounted for 5.68% of the total study area, were easily converted to regions with bad or poor habitat quality, thus leading to the fragmentation of the regional habitat. (3) From 1975 to 2010, land use changes in the study area were significant and had a huge influence on habitat quality; the habitat quality in the study area decreased consistently, and the area of the regions with bad and poor habitat quality accounted for more than 60% of the total study area. Construction land was the largest factor threatening habitat quality.