Current Distribution of Vegetation Resources in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Mechanism Research of Its Effects on Rocky Desertification Process

Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau is the core area of the rocky desertification in the Chinese southwest Karst regions, and the existing studies are very limited to describe the process of rocky desertification quantitatively. The vegetation resources are applied as the key indicators in quantitative description of the degree of rocky desertification damage, and the previous methods using only remote sensing datasets are not competent to distinguish the detailed information of vegetation type, coverage and patch fragmentation on a large scale. Previous research shows that the technology of unmanned aerial vehicle and the estimation software of fraction vegetation coverages and patches could be accurately and rapidly to exploit vegetation resource information. In this project, current distribution of vegetation resources in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau was clarified to reveal the influence mechanism of the rocky desertification. The control factors of rocky desertification distribution and the driving reasons of its dynamic changes were explained by the data of terrain, climate, population, economics and policy. Therefore, it could get the current distribution of vegetation resources in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, especially the grassland resources could be updated, which could not provide research foundations and scientific implications for resolving the rocky desertification, but also could provide valuable background information for the programs of restoring ecological environment and increasing local people＇s income in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.