Driving force analysis of landscape pattern changes in Honghu Wetland Nature Reserve in recent 40 years

This study took Honghu National Nature Reserve as an example to investigate the driving forces on Landscape pattern changes based on the land use and land change data of 1974, 1979,1984, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2009, 2014 and 2017, which were obtained from interpretation of Landsat images. Correlation analysis was adopted for finding characteristics of the interaction by combining with meteorological hydrological data such as temperature, precipitation and water stage. The results showed that: Land use intensity index risen from 207 at the begining of the study to 249.36 at the end of the study during the period of 1974-2017, these changes were more due to enlargement in the interference of human activities for land-use change. About 30% of the natural wetlands translated into ponds, farmland and bottomland and construction land by 2017. The landscape pattern indices of different types have changed greatly, the lakeside zone has formed a low enclosed ponds dominated by aquaculture after entering twenty-first Century. On the whole, landscape tended to be diversified, fragmented, reduced in connectivity and weakened in stability. The correlation coefficient between land use intensity index and the composite index of landscape pattern is 0.84, it shows that LUCC is very closely related to the landscape pattern. With the increase of land use intensity, the landscape is more fragmented, the degree of connectivity between patches is weakly, the landscape aggregation degree of the area is decreasing, and the landscape heterogeneity is increasing. In general, the Honghu Wetland Nature Reserve is affected obviously by human interference. The goal of maintaining the balance of Honghu wetland ecosystem is achieved through rational exploitation and utilization, returning farmland to grass and lake, restoring the vegetation of the lakeside zone, increasing the diversity of its aquatic plants, realizing the effective restoration of the wetland, improving its structure and function. A combination of the natural restoration of vegetation and the establishment of demonstration area of vegetation restorations is carried out, and the hygrophilous vegetation, emergent aquatic vegetation, floating vegetation, floating-leaved vegetation, and submerged vegetation, should be constructed from the lakeside to the heart of the lake. © 2019 by Journal of Lake Sciences.