Research On Ecological Security And Its Influencing Factors In Arid Zone

A good ecological environment is the basis for human survival and social development.Natural resources were over exploited after the World War II,and the ecological environment has been unprecedentedly destroyed.Environmental problems have emerged such as sandstorm,water pollution,atmospheric pollution,and deforestation.Under the background of increasingly global environmental changes and frequent human activities,the ecological security has attracted worldwide attention.Many countries have integrated ecological security into national security.The ecological balance system of arid zone has been gradually broken down with the continuous progress of urbanization,so the ecological environment has been deteriorating.Xinjiang is the largest arid zone in China,and the ecological environment is most severe and fragile.This paper takes Xinjiang as the study area.From the perspective of the ecosystem process and formation mechanism,13 indicators are selected to construct the ecological safety assessment system to analysis the ecological safety of Xinjiang.Finally,we get the following conclusions:(1)Xinjiang is in the status of middle babitat sensitivity-low ecological health-middle hnman disturbance.The habitat sensitive index increases from north to south.The ecological health index decreases from north to south.The human disturbance index increases from mountain ecosystem to oasis ecosystem and decreases from the oasis ecosystem to desert ecosystem(2)The overall ecological security index of Xinjiang belongs to the middle ecological security which is in critical state,indicating that the ecological environment can still maintain its basic functions.If correct environmental protection measures would be implemented,the ecological environment tends to be positive.Conversely,the excessive human activities or inappropriate protection measures would cause the ecological environment to deteriorate.On the whole,the insecure area is higher than the safe area in Xinjiang.The ecological safety of northern Xinjiang is higher than that of eastern and southern Xinjiang.The ecological security of desert ecosystems is the lowest.So,southern and eastern Xinjiang are key areas for ecological protection,especially desert ecosystems.(3)The ecological safety factors in different regions of Xinjiang are different.The ecological security of Shihezi,Karamay,Urumqi,Aksu Prefecture,Kashgar Prefecture and Hetian Prefecture is affected by natural and social factors including urbanization rate,per capita GDP,precipitation and dryness index The ecological security of Wujiaqu,Yili,Alar,Tushuush,Hami Region,Turpan Region and Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture is affected by the agricultural factors including fertilizer and pesticide application,population density and water-saving irrigation area.The ecological security of Changji hui autonomous prefecture and Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture is affected by economic factors including per capita GDP,population density,and energy consumption.The ecological security of Tarbagatay Prefecture,Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture and Altay Prefectureis is affected by resources aridity factors including index,precipitation,energy consumption and water resources carrying capacity.(4)The most important factor constraining Xinjiang's ecological security is water resources carrying capacity.Other major factors are water-saving irrigation area,afforestation area,energy consumption,precipitation and population density.Therefore,the important measures to improve ecological security in Xinjiang are saving water,improving the utilization of water resources,rationally utilizing water resources,expanding the area of forest and reasonably controlling the population.