Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Landscape Ecological Vulnerability in the Three-River-Source National Park Region

The increasing impact of global warming and human activities has exacerbated the ecological environment in the Three-River-Source National Park Region (TNPR). Understanding the temporal and spatial evolution of landscape ecological vulnerability (LEV) and its influencing factors are crucial to the implementation of environmental management. Here, we aimed to: 1) construct a LEV assessment model integrating landscape structure and function; 2) analyze the temporal and spatial evolution of TNPR's LEV from 1995 to 2015; 3) use geographic detectors to reveal the regional influence factors of TNPR's LEV. The main findings were: 1) grasslands, water, and bare land are important landscapes of TNPR, accounting for 98.37% of the total area. During the study period, there were significant differences in the area of different landscapes; except for desert, shrub, and urban land, the other landscape areas showed a decreasing trend. 2) During the study period, the LEV of TNPR showed a downward trend; except for grasslands, the ecological vulnerability of the other landscapes decreased steadily. Furthermore, a pattern of conversion from high to low vulnerability grade was observed in the study area. In terms of spatial distribution, the LEV level shows a trend of high at both ends (east and west) and low in the middle. 3) Overall, the impact of natural factors on the ecological vulnerability of the TNPR was significantly higher than that of human factors. In conclusion, our study provides a scientific basis for landscape structure optimization and the management of regional ecological vulnerability.