ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Spatial and Temporal Patterns and Driving Factors
of Desertification in Hulunbuir Grassland
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1
College of Geographic Sciences, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot 010022, China
2
Land Use and Remediation Engineering and Technology Research Center of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,
Hohhot 010022, China
Submission date: 2024-08-29
Final revision date: 2025-01-17
Acceptance date: 2025-03-17
Online publication date: 2025-04-29
Corresponding author
Xiwei Zhang
College of Geographic Sciences, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot 010022, China
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ABSTRACT
The Hulunbuir Grassland is located in the semi-arid region of northern China and is highly
sensitive to environmental changes, with sandy inlays within the grassland and heavy desertification
problems. However, there has been a lack of systematic research on the long-term distribution pattern
of desertification and influencing factors. This study adopted the multi-indicator fusion desertification
level extraction method to explore the temporal distribution characteristics, spatial distribution
pattern, and desertification center of the gravity migration pattern of the Hulunbuir sands and applied
the parameter optimal geographic detector to generate the optimal discretized factors from the
continuous meteorological and topographical factors to detect the main driving factors and mechanism
of desertification of Hulunbuir Grassland over its entire range. The results showed that the explanatory
power of meteorological factors was significantly stronger than that of topographic factors in the entire
area of Hulunbuir Grassland. Among meteorological factors, annual precipitation had the strongest
explanatory power for desertification; meteorological and topographic factors were nonlinearly
enhanced, and the interaction between precipitation and slope had the strongest explanatory power,
indicating that the interaction between precipitation and slope influenced vegetation and soil humidity
and thus indirectly influenced the desertification evolution process.