Abstract:
Carbon stocks play a pivotal role in maintaining ecosystem balance. Due to its unique natural endowment, the highland alpine climate zone has rich carbon stocks, and the estimation and analysis of its carbon stocks are of great reference value for coordinating and optimizing the regional land-use pattern and improving the potential of regional ecosystems in terms of carbon stocks. Taking the subtypical plateau alpine climate zone-Three Prefectures of Sichuan as an example, to understand the land use changes from 2000 to 2020, to estimate the spatial and temporal changes of its carbon stock, and to analyze the spatial autocorrelation of its district and county carbon stocks. The results are as follows: (1) Grassland and woodland accounted for the largest proportion of the study area during the 20-year period, accounting for more than 90% of the total area of the study area; the area of land use transfer from 2000 to 2020 accounted for 5.28% of the total area, and wetlands had the highest probability of conversion. (2) Carbon stocks in 2000, 2010 and 2020 were 3
116.24×10
6,
3115.31×10
6 and
3112.68×10
6, respectively, showing a continuous decreasing trend; during the 20-year period, a total of 24 districts and counties saw an increase in carbon stocks and 24 districts and counties saw a decrease in carbon stocks, indicating that changes in carbon stocks in the study area showed a differentiated state in terms of districts and counties. (3) The global autocorrelation results show that the study area is positively correlated in terms of carbon stocks in the districts and counties; the local autocorrelation results show that the areas where carbon stocks appear to be highly aggregated are in the western part of the study area, and the areas where they appear to be lowly aggregated are in the southern part of the study area. This study contributes to an in-depth understanding of carbon stocks in the three prefectures of Sichuan and assists in the construction of ecological civilization and sustainable development in their counties.