A township-level assessment of forest fragmentation using morphological spatial pattern analysis in Qujing, Yunnan Province, China.

Forest fragmentation is an integral part of global change. Understanding forest fragmentation patterns and dynamics are of great significance for maintaining ecosystem stability. There are great differences in the interference of natural and human factors on forests in different towns of mountainous cities, and the characteristics of forest fragmentation are also obviously different. Forest fragmentation has been broadly studied, yet, it remains poorly understood at the township-scale within mountainous cities. In this study, the spatial form of forest landscape and forest fragmentation modes of towns were examined in Qujing City, Yunnan Province, China for the years of 2006 and 2016, relying heavily on the morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and K-means clustering algorithm. Results in 2016 showed that the forest landscape morphology of Qujing could be divided into seven classes: core, perforation, islet, bridge, edge, branch and ring; with landscape areas of 41.94%, 1.22%, 7.04%, 11.12%, 23.26%, 11.74% and 3.68%, respectively, while landscape areas of these types are 1.71%, −0.02%, 0.30%, −1.65%, −0.20%, −0.19% and 0.05%, respectively, in 2006. The townships in Qujing varied significantly in their landscape fragmentation patterns, and these patterns were spatially dependent. Different forest landscape forms have positive spatial correlations and differences. The forest fragmentation modes of towns can be divided into four types: Low anthropogenic towns, high anthropogenic towns, complex terrain towns and gentle terrain towns. Different ways of human activities play a decisive role in forest landscape fragmentation. The expansion of construction land and agricultural land intensifies forest fragmentation; however, man-made orderly and planned ecological restoration will greatly improve the forest coverage and improve the spatial form of urban forest landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]