Landscape Dynamics in Hulunbuir Grassland of China

Hulunbuir Grassland is one of the world famous steppe. Along with global climate change, the beautiful mosaic landscape of grassland-wetland-desert is getting unstable under huge demographic and economic growth pressures. From 2000 to 2010, the total area of water reduced by 396.52 km(2), grassland by 234.71 km(2) and forest 146.86 km(2), whereas, the areas of construction land, desert, cropland and wetland increased by 462.59 km(2), 189.43 km(2), 99.33 km(2) and 26.74 km(2) respectively. The NP (Number of Patches) increased by 1161 and PD (Patch Density) by 0.02, while the MPS (Mean Patch Size) decreased by 2.24 km(2) and LPI (Largest Patch Index) by 0.35. Moreover, SHDI (Shannon's Diversity Index) and SHEI (Shannon's Evenness Index) increased by 0.02 and 0.10. These results indicate obviously a process of grassland loss and fragmentation. Although many environmental protection efforts have been carried out from 2000, the degradation trend still can't be hold back.