Quantitative assessment of the ecological effects of land use/cover change in the arid region of Northwest China

In light of ongoing changes in how humans interact with the environment, it is of great importance to quantitatively assess the impact of land use and cover change (LUCC) on ecosystems. Using a variety of methods, we analyzed land-use patterns and ecosystem service values (ESV) in 1990, 2000, and 2010; normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from 1982 to 2010 in the arid region of Northwest China; and quantitatively assessed the effects of LUCC on changes in NDVI and ESV. The results indicate the following: (1) From 1990 to 2010, the rate of increase in the amount of cropland and urban land was highest at 19.13% and 18.25%, respectively, followed by the rate for water cover (5.10%) and forest land (3.55%), while grassland experienced a reduction of 2.25%. (2) From 1990 to 2010, the total ESV increased by 1.82%. Changes in the amount of water cover and cropland were responsible for an increase in ESV of 1.42% and 1.10%, respectively, while the change in the amount of grassland was responsible for a decrease of 1.09%. Based on this, it seems likely that climate variability is a substantial cause of change in ESV. (3) From 1982 to 2010, NDVI showed an overall increase, first increasing significantly between 1982 and 2002 and then decreasing somewhat from 2002 to 2010. From 1990 to 2010, the contribution rate of LUCC to change in total NDVI was 26.74%, indicating that the contribution rate of climate variability to NDVI change was up to 73.26%. Therefore, over those 20 years, climate warming and humidification had an important impact on the development of ecosystems in the arid region of Northwest China.