Zhang Weiyi, Lu Bei, Liao Lingyun
College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350100, PR China.
College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350100, PR China; The People's Government of Shiniujiang Town, Taojiang County, Yiyang, 413400, PR China.
J Environ Manage. 2025 Sep;391:126551. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126551. Epub 2025 Jul 14.
Rapid urbanization often intensifies landscape fragmentation and reduces habitat quality in metropolitan areas, necessitating an understanding of their interaction mechanisms. There has been a predominant focus on correlational analyses in existing research examining changes in landscape patterns and habitat quality, while causality between the two has received considerably less attention. Using Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) and Geographical Convergent Cross Mapping (GCCM), we elucidated spatially heterogeneous and causal mechanisms linking landscape pattern evolution to habitat quality dynamics in southeast China's coastal Fuzhou metropolitan area. It is demonstrated that: (1) From 2000 to 2022, habitat quality in the study area declined by 5 %, degradation worsened by 24 %, and landscape fragmentation intensified, with clear spatial differences: high fragmentation along the coast and stable quality inland. (2) Most landscape pattern indexes (LSPI) were significantly correlated with the current status of habitat quality, but only the Largest Patch Index (LPI) showed a clear unidirectional causal effect with habitat quality (ρ = 0.38). (3) LPI variation weakly drived habitat degradation (ρ = 0.25), while other indexes correlated with degradation but lack direct causality. (4) Interspersion-Juxtaposition Index (IJI) and Number of Patches (NP) exhibited unidirectional causal effects on changes in habitat quality from 2000 to 2022, with ρ = 0.3 for IJI and ρ = 0.22 for NP, while LPI and other key indexes showed correlations only. It revealed the causal relationships between landscape pattern evolution and habitat quality dynamics, and identified key drivers responsible for habitat degradation, which would provide operational guidance for ecological restoration in rapidly developing metropolitan areas.
快速城市化往往会加剧大都市地区的景观破碎化并降低栖息地质量，因此有必要了解它们的相互作用机制。在现有研究中，主要侧重于对景观格局变化和栖息地质量进行相关性分析，而二者之间的因果关系受到的关注则少得多。利用多尺度地理加权回归（MGWR）和地理收敛交叉映射（GCCM），我们阐明了中国东南沿海福州大都市地区景观格局演变与栖息地质量动态之间的空间异质性和因果机制。结果表明：（1）2000年至2022年，研究区域内栖息地质量下降了5%，退化加剧了24%，景观破碎化加剧，存在明显的空间差异：沿海地区破碎化程度高，内陆地区质量稳定。（2）大多数景观格局指数（LSPI）与栖息地质量现状显著相关，但只有最大斑块指数（LPI）与栖息地质量呈现出明显的单向因果效应（ρ = 0.38）。（3）LPI变化对栖息地退化的驱动作用较弱（ρ = 0.25），而其他指数与退化相关但缺乏直接因果关系。（4）2000年至2022年，散布与并列指数（IJI）和斑块数量（NP）对栖息地质量变化呈现单向因果效应，IJI的ρ值为0.3，NP的ρ值为0.22，而LPI和其他关键指数仅表现出相关性。研究揭示了景观格局演变与栖息地质量动态之间的因果关系，识别出了导致栖息地退化的关键驱动因素，这将为快速发展的大都市地区的生态恢复提供操作指导。
