Rigidity and resilience framework-based health diagnosis of mountain forest ecosystems: A case study of Yiliang County in Yunnan Province

The health status of mountain forest ecosystems has a profound impact on the local population, playing a significant role in various aspects such as ensuring equitable access to public services, providing balanced employment opportunities, stabilizing the supply of basic necessities and economic resources in the region, preserving traditional livelihoods, facilitating the expansion of new livelihoods, and promoting the stability and diversification of residents' income. In response to the current situation of mountain forest ecosystems in Southwest China and the problems of declining forest resource quality, soil erosion, land desertification and frequent natural disasters that face them, there is an urgent need to diagnose their health status. Combining remote sensing methods with geological survey analysis, this study integrates multiple perspectives and levels, including human impact, ecological issues, ecological patterns, ecological quality, ecological services, and surface matrix, to innovatively construct a forest ecosystem health diagnosis model based on a rigidity and resilience framework. Health diagnosis and early warning analysis of the forest ecosystems in Yiliang County in Yunnan Province were conducted. The results show: (1) From 2010 to 2020, there were significant spatial variations in such indicators as human activities, ecological issues, ecological patterns, ecological quality, ecological services, and surface matrix within the forest ecosystems of Yiliang County. Notably, the impact of human activities and the degree of fragmentation of ecological patterns intensified; (2) the overall health status of the forest ecosystems from 2010 to 2020 was diagnosed predominantly as Very Healthy and Healthy, with spatial a transition mainly occurring from Very Healthy to Healthy; (3) from 2010 to 2020, the comprehensive health index of Yiliang's forest ecosystems exhibited a decreasing trend in the western region and an increasing trend in the eastern region. The comprehensive forest ecosystem health status index increased by a maximum of 0.323 and decreased by a maximum of 0.459; (4) from 2010 to 2020, early warnings about forest ecosystem health in Yiliang County were mainly categorized as Yellow Warning and No Warning, accounting for 46.27 % and 45.57 % of the area respectively. The results of the study are conducive to the health monitoring and zonal management of terrestrial forest ecosystems, and are of great practical significance to the promotion of ecological civilisation in the southwestern mountains.