Spatial distribution of human activities and their influences on landscape patterns in Daqingshan Nature Reserve

: Based on forest inventory data and field survey information, and by using GIS spatial analysis technique and landscape indices, this paper studied the spatial distribution of three categories of human activities (settlement, roads, and other sources of disturbances) and their impacts on landscape patterns in three sub-divided regions, i. e., the west, central and east regions of the Daqingshan Nature Reserve in Inner Mongolia. Results showed that the impacts of human activities were stronger in the east and west regions and weaker in the central region. Among the three subdivided regions, the landscape pattern in the west region was predominantly affected by other sources of disturbances, making the landscape patterns of coniferous forests, broadleaf forests and shrubs tended to be of aggregated distribution; the central region was mainly affected by roads, resulting in reduced landscape patch aggregation of broadleaf forests and shrubs; the east region was mostly affected by settlement, resulting in increased fragmentation of coniferous forests and broadleaf forests and apparent increases in landscape patch aggregation of shrubs and grasslands.