The Changes of Spatiotemporal Pattern of Rocky Desertification and Its Dominant Driving Factors in Typical Karst Mountainous Areas under the Background of Global Change

Abstract

There are significant differences in the dominant driving factors of rocky desertification evolution in different historical periods in southwest karst mountainous areas. However, previous studies were mostly conducted in specific periods. In this study, taking Bijie City as an example, the spatial and temporal evolution pattern of rocky desertification in Bijie City in the recent 35 years was analyzed by introducing the feature space model and the gravity center model, and then the dominant driving factors of rocky desertification in the study area in different historical periods were clarified based on GeoDetector. The results were as follows: (1) The point-to-point B (bare land index)-DI (dryness index) feature space model has high applicability for rocky desertification monitoring, and its inversion accuracy was 91.3%. (2) During the past 35 years, the rocky desertification in Bijie belonged to the moderate rocky desertification on the whole, and zones of intensive and severe rocky desertification were mainly distributed in the Weining Yi, Hui, and Miao Autonomous Region. (3) During 1985–2020, the rocky desertification in Bijie City showed an overall weakening trend (‘weakening–aggravating–weakening’). (4) From 1985 to 2020, the gravity center of rocky desertification in Bijie City moved westward, indicating that the aggravating degree of rocky desertification in the western region of the study area was higher than that in the eastern region. (5) The dominant factors affecting the evolution of rocky desertification in the past 35 years shifted from natural factor (vegetation coverage) to human activity factor (population density). The research results could provide decision supports for the prevention and control of rocky desertification in Bijie City and even the southwest karst mountainous area.