Spatial Distribution Patterns Of Goat Pastoral In Semi-arid Hilly And Gully Region Of The Loess Plateau

Pastoral landscape,a network of paths trampled by herbivores,is widely distributed in Hilly and gully areas of semi-arid Loess plateau.The micro-topography of pastoral landscape consists of three parts: pastoral,convex shoulder and slope shoulder.There are differences in plant community structure on different slopes.Because of the influence of plants on the feeding process of Zhongwei goat,there will be different path choices.Therefore,the distribution characteristics of goat pastoral tract will also be different among different slopes.Three slopes,sunny slope,shady slope and semi-shady and semi-sunny slope,were selected as the research objects.By comparing the distribution characteristics of plant communities and pastoral tracts on different slopes on the slope scale,the spatial distribution pattern of pastoral tracts in the study area was finally analyzed.The results are as follows:1.There are 36 species belonging to 30 genera and 17 families in the study area,of which the shady slope contains plants(30 species)> semi-shady and semi-sunny slope(25 species)> sunny slope(20 species).The results of plant community distribution showed that plant height,crown width,aboveground biomass and vegetation coverage of shady slope were higher than those of the other two slopes.2.Pastoral density is used to reflect the distribution characteristics of pasture on hillside.The results showed that the pastoral density on the three slopes was not more than 20%,and the distribution of pastoral density on the slopes was shady slope > semi-shady and semi-sunny slope > sunny slope.3.Pastoral network graph is composed of nodes and edges.The degree of nodes is obtained by calculating the number of edges directly connected to nodes.Node density refers to the ratio of the number of certain types of nodes in a quadrat to the total area of the quadrat.The experimental results show that the density of each type of node is the largest in shady slope,followed by half-shady and half-sunny slope,and the smallest in sunny slope.4.NDVI values were obtained from Landsat 8 images.There was a significant linear relationship between NDVI and vegetation coverage(P < 0.05),and there was a significant linear relationship between pasture density and vegetation coverage(P < 0.05).The pasture density distribution map shows that the pasture density in the study area is mainly in the range of 0.12-0.16.