Altay region is located in the northern part of Xinjiang, and has complex and diverse internal geomorphic types, undulating terrain and a fragile ecosystem. Studying the impact of land use changes on habitat quality is of great significance to regional ecological protection and development, rational planning and utilization, and ensuring the sustainable development of the ecological environment. Based on the InVEST model, combined with land use panel data and topographic relief data of the Altay region, this paper studied the habitat quality from 1995 to 2018. The results show that cultivated land, water area and construction land increased gradually from 1995 to 2018, while grassland and unused land decreased. Forestland remained stable in the first five periods, but increased significantly in 2018. During 1995-2018, all land use types were transferred, mainly between cultivated land, forestland, grassland and unused land in the flat and slightly undulating areas. Poor habitat quality was dominant during 1995-2018. Habitat quality decreased significantly in 2015, which was related to the rapid expansion of cultivated and construction land as threat sources, as well as the decrease of forest and grassland as sensitive factors. However, habitat quality improved significantly in 2018, because a large amount of cultivated land and unused land were converted into forest land and grassland with high habitat suitability. Land use type has an important influence on habitat quality. The distribution characteristics of habitat quality for topographic relief types from good to bad were: large undulating area>medium undulating area>small undulating area>flat area>slightly undulating area. The findings of this study are of great significance for coordinating social, economic, and ecological development in this region and in similar areas.

Quantitative evaluation and driving mechanism analysis of vegetation dynamics are essential for promoting regional sustainable development. In the past 20 years, the ecological environment in Altay Prefecture has changed significantly due to global warming. Meanwhile, with increasing human activities, the spatiotemporal pattern and driving forces of vegetation variation in the area are uncertain and difficult to accurately assess. Hence, we quantified the vegetation growth by using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) on the Google Earth Engine (GEE). Then, the spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation from 2000 to 2019 were analyzed at the pixel scale. Finally, significance threshold segmentation was performed using meteorological data based on the correlation analysis results, and the contributions of climate change and human activities to vegetation variation were quantified. The results demonstrated that the vegetation coverage in Altay Prefecture is mainly concentrated in the north. The vegetation areas representing significant restoration and degradation from 2000 to 2019 accounted for 24.08% and 1.24% of Altay Prefecture, respectively. Moreover, spatial correlation analysis showed that the areas with significant correlations between NDVI and temperature, precipitation and sunlight hours accounted for 3.3%, 6.9% and 20.3% of Altay Prefecture, respectively. In the significant restoration area, 18.94% was dominated by multiple factors, while 3.4% was dominated by human activities, and 1.74% was dominated by climate change. Within the significant degradation area, abnormal degradation and climate change controlled 1.07% and 0.17%, respectively. This study revealed the dynamic changes of vegetation and their driving mechanisms in Altay Prefecture, and can provide scientific support for further research on life community mechanism theory and key remediation technology of mountain-water-forest-farmland-lake-grass in Altay Prefecture.

Grassland degradation in Altay Prefecture is of considerable concern as it is a threat that hinders the sustainable development of the local economy and the stable operation of the livestock industry. Quantitative assessment of the relative contributions of climate change and human activities, which are considered as the dominant triggers of grassland degradation, to grassland variation is crucial for understanding the grassland degradation mechanism and mitigating the degraded grassland in Altay Prefecture. In this paper, the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach model and the Thornthwaite memorial model were adopted to simulate the actual net primary productivity (NPP_A) and potential net primary productivity (NPP_P) in the Altay Prefecture from 2000 to 2019. Meanwhile, the difference between potential NPP and actual NPP was employed to reflect the effects of human activities (NPP_H) on the grassland. On this basis, we validated the viability of the simulated NPP using the Pearson correlation coefficient, investigated the spatiotemporal variability of grassland productivity, and established comprehensive scenarios to quantitatively assess the relative roles of climate change and human activities on grassland in Altay prefecture. The results indicate three main points. (1) The simulated NPP_A was highly consistent with the MOD17A3 dataset in spatial distribution. (2) Regions with an increased NPP_A accounted for 70.53% of the total grassland, whereas 29.47% of the total grassland area experienced a decrease. At the temporal scale, the NPP_A presented a slightly increasing trend (0.83 g C m^?2 yr^?1) over the study period, while the trends of NPP_P and NPP_H were reduced (?1.31 and ?2.15 g C m^?2 yr^?1). (3) Compared with climate change, human activities played a key role in the process of grassland restoration, as 66.98% of restored grassland resulted from it. In contrast, inter-annual climate change is the primary cause of grassland degradation, as it influenced 55.70% of degraded grassland. These results could shed light on the mechanisms of grassland variation caused by climate change and human activities, and they can be applied to further develop efficient measures to combat desertification in Altay Prefecture.

As a material carrier contributing to human survival and social sustainable development, the ecological environment is declining in its integrity and overall health. With the rapid development of society and economy, it is currently very necessary to carry out ecological security evaluation research to provide scientific guidance and suggestions for the construction of ecological civilization and the harmonious co-existence between man and nature. Taking Altay region as the research area, this paper collected and integrated regional geological, geographical, cultural, socio-economic, and statistical data, as well as previous research results. Combined with DPSIR and EES framework model, the evaluation index system of land resource ecological security in Altay region was constructed by using the analytic hierarchy process, entropy method and linear weighted summation function method. Using this index system, the evaluation research work was carried out to determine the current state of the security situation and the major threats which should be addressed. (1) The overall ecological security situation of Altay region was relatively safe, while the local ecological security situation was relatively fragile. Among them, the areas with safe and safer ecological environment accounted for 38.72%, while the areas with critically safe status accounted for 30.83%, and the areas with a less safe and unsafe environment accounted for 30.45%. In terms of spatial characteristics, the areas with unsafe ecological environment were mainly distributed in the west and east of the study area, while the areas with good ecological environment were distributed in the north of the study area. (2) Large-scale mining activities, frequent geological disasters, large-scale reclamation and long-term cultivation of arable land, and long-term large-scale grazing activities resulting in the destruction of grassland and vegetation were the main factors leading to the prominent ecological security problems of land resources in the Altay region. Therefore, in the process of the continuous development of the urban economy, we should pay more attention to the harmony between man and nature, and also actively and effectively advocate and implement certain policies and measures, such as returning farmland to forest, returning grazing land to grassland and integrating the mining of mineral resources.