Authors: Yu Ye Xiuqi Fang
Publish Date: 2012/04/12
Volume: 12, Issue: 4, Pages: 923-934
Abstract
Land cover changes induced by historical cultivation in ecologically fragile areas involving important issues such as environmental change ecology and human sustainability are particularly worthy of attention This paper reconstructs the spatial distribution of cultivated areas at the county level in the eastern farmingpastoral ecotone of northern China for four time periods during the twentieth century The paper also analyzes how the location of cultivation ratio contours of 15 and 30 representing the boundaries of agricultural areas have moved and the formation process of farmingpastoral ecotone patterns during this period The study concludes that the area and ratio of cultivated land fluctuations increased during the twentieth century The boundaries of the cultivation ratio contours of 15 and 30 continually moved west and north Moving north took priority over the other directions during the period of 1916–1940 when its center moved the farthest during the twentieth century and the boundaries primarily moved westward during 1940–1980 and northwestward during 1980–2000 The distance direction and extent of the movement of the cultivation boundaries are all related to agricultural area expansion processes during this period finally resulting in the creation of the modern farmingpastoral ecotone pattern
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