The Relation Between Landscape Variation And Soil Erosion Dynamics In The Minjiang River Headwater Region In Sichuan, China

As a complex ecological process, soil erosion is affected by the spatial landscape heterogeneity.The relation between soil erosion and landscape characteristic weights a lot in ecosystemrestoration that aim to control the soil erosion in watershed. By means of RS and GIStechniques, this study analyzed dynamic variations in landscape characteristic and soil erosionin the Minjiang headwater region over a period of 28 years to elucidate the interrelationshipsbetween landscape characteristics and soil erosion. The results are as follows:1. In terms of relation between landscape characteristics and soil erosion module, forest canmitigate the soil erosion much better than grass. The relation between shrub and soil erosionmodule is rather complicated that requests further more study to confirm how those two factorscorrelated with each other. Cultivated land differs from other landscape classes in creatingconditions most favorable for soil erosion. Moreover, the dispersion of all landscape classes,except for shrub, correlates with soil module negatively.2. In terms of relation between landscape characteristics and soil erosion strength, the diversityindex, fragment index, shape index and contagion index of the vegetation in Minjiangheadwater region at landscape-level correlated with soil erosion clearly. Vegetation landscapein No and Slight erosion region is more diverse, fragmental and constructed in more complexway. The shape of those vegetation patches is also more complicated. The spatial heterogeneityof the vegetation landscape is much more evident than that located in moderate and strongerosion region too.3. At class-level, different landscape classes affected soil erosion strength in different ways. Taking the mitigating effect on erosion strength into consideration, landscape classes can bearranged in this turn: coniferous forest＞Deciduous forest＞Mixed forest＞Shrub＞Grassland＞Cultivated land. At the same time, for most landscape classes, except for cultivated land,increase the mean patch size and complicate the shape of patch will help to relieve the erosionstrength. However, for cultivated land, simplifying the shape of patch and scattering thepatches have the same effect.