Unraveling the driving mechanisms of landscape connectivity dynamics in the Mu Us Sandy Land, northern China 后印本

摘要: The Mu Us Sandy Land, a critical agro-pastoral ecotone in northern China, served as a key region for understanding landscape connectivity dynamics under coupled climate–human pressures. This study used landscape pattern indices and the Geodetector model to systematically quantify the spatiotemporal dynamics of structural landscape connectivity in the Mu Us Sandy Land from 1990 to 2020 by integrating multi-temporal land use and meteorological data. The driving mechanisms of the landscape connectivity dynamics and present status of regional ecological restoration were analyzed. The results showed an overall decline in structural landscape connectivity over the past three decades, marked by a distinct spatial pattern of "decreasing in the east and increasing in the west". Fragmentation in the east was driven by intensive human expansion, while aggregation in the west resulted from long-term ecological restoration. Factor analysis revealed that structural landscape connectivity was jointly influenced by climatic and anthropogenic factors, with wide-ranging synergistic interactions. The dominant drivers changed temporally, i.e., in the early phases (1990–2000), natural factors (e.g., wind speed and temperature) and agricultural activities were the main drivers; in the transitional phase (2000–2010), precipitation played an important role; and in the later phases (2010–2020), the human–land synergy regime characterized by human activity factors, particularly residential density, gained predominant explanatory power. This study revealed the multi-factor synergistic driving mechanisms and their temporal evolution, providing a scientific basis for adaptive ecological restoration and spatial planning in semi-arid regions.