Identification of Key Areas for Ecosystem Restoration Based on Ecological Security Pattern

Abstract

Ecosystem degradation and conversion are leading to a widespread reduction in the provision of ecosystem services. It is crucial for the governance of regional land spaces to rapidly identify key areas for ecosystem restoration. Herein, we combined the InVEST Habitat Quality Model with the granularity inverse method to identify ecological sources in Jiashi county, China, based on the “source-corridor” ecological security pattern paradigm. The minimum cumulative resistance model and circuit theory were adopted to diagnose the ecological “pinch points”, barrier points, break points, and key restoration areas for land space. Our results show that: (1) the area of the ecological source and the total length of the ecological corridor were identified as 1331.13 km2 and 316.30 km, respectively; (2) there were 164 key ecological “pinch points” and 69 key ecological barrier points in Jiashi county, with areas of 15.13 km2 and 14.57 km2, respectively. Based on the above ecological security pattern, recovery strategies are put forward to improve regional ecosystem health. This study describes the best practices which can be used to guide the planning and implementation of ecosystem restoration at the local landscape scale.