Trends and processes of land cover change in the western High Plains ecoregion
Date
2007
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Abstract
The goal of this study was to better understand the agricultural land use processes and land cover changes affecting the semi-arid Western High Plains ecoregion in the United States Great Plains. Globally, the processes of agricultural expansion and loss have had widespread effects on land cover and ecosystems that are an ongoing concern of land change research. To improve the understanding of regional land change, three main topics were addressed: (1) the contemporary patterns and key processes of agricultural change in the conterminous United States; (2) the rates, causes, and processes of land cover change in the Western High Plains ecoregion between 1973 and 2000; and (3) the primary driving forces of contemporary land cover change in the Western High Plains, including the dynamics of water resource access. Land cover change estimates for the ecoregion were derived using a stratified random sample of 10 x 10 km blocks and remote sensing change detection. Land use was examined using the Census of Agriculture. Results of the study indicate that patterns of land change vary by region and time period depending on socioeconomic driving forces and environmental context. In the Western High Plains ecoregion, net grassland loss occurred from 1973 to 1986 as agricultural land expanded in response to market opportunities. Agricultural expansion affected 1.9% of the ecoregion. Processes of land change became substantially different after 1986. Between 1986 and 1992, grassland expanded and became the dominant land cover, driven in large part by the cropland retirement policies of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Agricultural declines affected 7.3% of the ecoregion, primarily as cropland was converted to grassland cover. Between 1992 and 2000, net grassland expansion was less than 1%, although there was a high rate of gross change in the location of grassland and agriculture that had only a limited effect on net change. The primary driving forces of land cover change were enabled by water resource access, which had a substantial influence on grassland extent and pattern.
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Subject
Great Plains
land cover change
semiarid
ecology
geography
physical geography