Detection of Typical Forest Degradation Patterns: Characteristics and Drivers of Forest Degradation in Northeast China

Abstract

The accurate identification of forest degradation and its driving factors is a prerequisite for implementing high-quality forest management. However, distinguishing degradation patterns is often neglected in large-scale forest quality assessments. The indicators were constructed to identify typical forest degradation patterns using remote sensing indexes, followed by an analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of forest degradation and quantification of the contributions from various driving factors. The results indicated that the constructed indicators could effectively distinguish typical forest degradation patterns, with a fire degradation identification accuracy of 90.0% and a fitting accuracy of drought and pest degradation higher than 0.7. The cold temperate conifer forest zone had the largest proportion of fire degradation, accounting for 67.7% of the area, and totals of 99.0% of the subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest zone and 92.8% of the temperate conifer and broadleaf mixed forest zone were moderately to severely affected by drought, with long-term stability. Additionally, 0.1% of the temperate grassland region and 0.1% of the cold temperate conifer forest zone underwent severe pest infestations, with a long-term stable trend. Meteorological factors were the primary contributors to all typical degradation patterns, accounting for 81.35%, 58.70%, and 82.29%, respectively. The research developed an index for assessing forest degradation and explained the importance of natural and anthropogenic factors in forest degradation. The results are beneficial for the scientific management of forest degradation and for improving forest management efficiency.