Research on spatiotemporal change of ecological capacity and driving forces in the LRGR

The Longitudinal range-gorge region (LRGR) is a key region for biodiversity protection in China. Also it is notable for rich resources, complex environment and vulnerable ecosystem. In the LRGR, there are great differences in ecological security level and ecological capacity. Human disturbance and ecosystem changes are significant. Analyzing the spatiotemporal changes of ecological capacity is of importance for government to implement ecological management. Taking the counties in the LRGR core region as a case, with the help of GIS, we used ecological footprint method to study the spatiotemporal change of ecological capacity at two scales—the larger scale of city and smaller scale of county. Then we discussed the driving factors that affected ecological capacity by principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that the ecological footprint, ecological capacity and ecological security level varied distinctly from county to county in the LRGR. Regional ecological capacity decreased year by year from the north, south to the middle of LRGR. According to the analysis of driving forces, per capita ecological capacity had a negative correlation with population, GDP, and other driving factors. Among these factors, social economy and population had very significant impacts on ecological capacity. And the spatial variation of driving factors determined the spatiotemporal change of ecological capacity.