Effects of Land Use Change on Habitat Quality in the Tumen River Basin

Abstract

Habitat quality is one of the important factors to measure ecosystem services, and its quality is directly related to regional ecosystem service capacity. The Tumen River Basin is located in the border area of China, Korea and Russia. The temporal and spatial evolution of habitat quality in Tumen River Basin is of great significance to the ecological security and sustainable development of Northeast Asia. Based on InVEST model and spatial autocorrelation, this study analyzed the temporal and spatial changes of habitat quality and the interaction of elevation in Tumen River Basin (Chinese side). The results showed that: 1) Land transfer mainly occurred from cultivated land to construction land and grassland, and from forest land to cultivated land from 2000 to 2018. 2) In the past 20 years, habitat quality in the study area fluctuated, showing an upward trend and then a downward trend, but the overall fluctuation was not significant, with an average value of 0.87. 3) The elevation effect of habitat quality and degradation degree was obvious on elevation. The distribution of low-grade habitat quality was consistent with that of cultivated land and construction land, while that of high-grade habitat quality was consistent with that of forest land. Overall, the habitat quality index increased with elevation. The results can provide some reference for biodiversity conservation and ecological sustainable development in Northeast Asia.