Analysis on spatial pattern change of land use types and its influences on ecosystem services value: a case study of Wuchuan County in China

This paper presents an analysis on change of spatial pattern of land use types and its influences on ecosystem services value. The study area was Wuchuan County in Inner Mongolia Municipality. Based on land use type maps of 1980s, 1995 and 2000, changes of land use types and transition matrix were firstly obtained. Then landscape pattern indices were developed by Fragstats. Next, ecosystem service values of the three phases were calculated through ecosystem service value formula by constanza and China ecosystem service value indices by Xie Gaodi. At last, analysis on the relationship between changes of land use types and ecosystem service values were done. The results consisted of three points: (a) from 1980s to 2000, spatial pattern of land use types had changed a lot, and the annual change rate was high. In 1980s, grassland was the dominant land use type, while cropland and grassland became main land use types in 2000. Woodland decreased firstly and then increased, which was the result of the government policy. From the land use transition matrix, we concluded that the increase of cropland came mainly from grassland, and the change of woodland was the result of interconversion between woodland and grassland. Urban and rural areas increased slowly, which indicated the speed of urbanization process was slow. (b) Calculation results of seven landscape pattern indices indicated that the study area had a middle level of landscape fragmentation. From 1980s to 2000, the fragmentation level of study area increased firstly and then decreased and generally increased. Dominance and contagion index decreased. Landscape shape became more complex and the quality of ecosystem dropped, which was an outcome of human activities. (c) Cropland, woodland and grassland provided the main ecosystem services in the study area. The main ecosystem services were soil formation and protection, waste treatment, water regulation. From 1980s to 2000, total ecosystem services decreased firstly and then increased, but the value of 2000 was less than that of 1980s in general. And we concluded that there was a good correlative relationship between change of ecosystem services and changes of land use pattern. Decrease of woodland and grassland and landscape fragmentation was the main reason of decrease of ecosystem services.