[Characteristics and driving forces of vegetation dynamics in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from 1992 to 2018]

Human activities related with construction and destruction are one of the important drivers for vegetation dynamics. Using remote sensing to explore the quantitative monitoring process and driving force of vegetation succession can well reveal the impacts of human activities on ecological background. Based on the vegetation formation group and vegetation formation scales, this study used the European Space Agency's annual land cover data and geo-information TUPU analysis to investigate vegetation succession direction, succession speed, and succession sequence in the Inner Mongolia from 1992 to 2018. The vegetation succession characteristics and its driving forces were then clarified. Results showed that vegetation structure changed dramatically with increasing vegetation and decreasing barren during the study period. The specific annual growth rate was cultivated land (353.10 km²) > grassland (243.92 km²) > forest (-16.22 km²) > shrubland (-120.37 km²) > desert (-556.31 km²). There was a trade-off between the area changes of adjacent grasslands, deserts, and shrublands. Vegetation succession presented a spatial pattern of vegetation expansion and desert reduction, with the succession hotspots concentrated in the West Liaohe River Plain, the desert-grassland junction of central Inner Mongolia, and along the Yellow River. The structure of vegetation succession sequence was complex with progressive succession and regressive succession intermixed. The retention rate of succession flow differed among different communities. Most of the succession flow was intercepted by the grassland and shrubland community of vegetation formation group and the grassland and cropland rainfed community of vegetation formation. The core driving forces of vegetation dynamic succession are agriculture and animal husbandry production, economic development level, population size, ecological engineering, and climate change. As a case study of plantsociology and landscape ecology, our results could provide scientific guidance for optimizing vegetation patterns and enhancing the spatial division and succession level of ecological measures.