Temporal and spatial changes of karst rocky desertification in ecological reconstruction region of Southwest China

Karst rocky desertification (KRD), as a process of soil degradation, is a limiting factor on enhancing the life condition of people in Southwest China. Fortunately, Chinese governments at different levels had taken it seriously, and the ‘Green for Grain’ program was initiated to treat and protect the fragile environment. In order to assess the dynamic change of KRD and improve the treatment of it in the future, Pingguo County, one of the ‘one hundred typical counties for karst rocky desertification control in China,’ was chosen as the study area. The results indicated that the evolution process of KRD landforms in the county might be divided into two phases: degradation phase (1994–2001) and ecological reconstruction phase (2001–2009). In the degradation phase, the area of non-KRD landform decreased from 1,132.02 km2 in 1994 to 1,056.42 km2 in 2001. In this phase, the area of non-KRD landform lost 5.51 % to KRD landforms, which mainly transferred to slight KRD landform with an area of 35.55 km2 counting for 3.14 %. In another hand, the area of non-KRD gained 27.85 km2, mainly from the slight KRD landform. As a result the area of non-KRD was reduced, meaning that the evolution of KRD became serious. In this phrase, the dynamic change degree of the slight KRD landform was the minimum, and the area of it was the largest among the three KRD landforms. Therefore, transition of slight KRD landform was the main transition type in this phase. The area of slight KRD landforms increased 38.77 km2 in the county, which mostly took place in the middle and southwest karst regions. In ecological reconstruction phase, the area of non-KRD landform increased to 1,091.90 km2 in 2009. In this phase, non-KRD landform gained an area of 22.82 km2 and lost an area of 26.73 km2, major of which from or to the slight KRD landform. Therefore, the area of non-KRD landform was increased, implying that the evolution of KRD became alleviated. In this phase, transition of slight KRD landform was also the dominant transition type. The decreased area of slight KRD landform was the largest among severe, moderate and slight KRD cases in the southwest karst region, where the ecological reconstruction projects were initiated. The efficient degrees of KRD landforms in southwest karst region were the largest in the four karst regions in this county. This study results may provide a consultant for rocky desertification control and ecological restoration in the future.