Change of Landscape Patterns in the Huihe National Nature Reserve, Hulun Buir, Inner Mongolia, Northern China

For understanding the regional response to climate change, we explain the characteristics and change of landscape patterns at Huihe National Nature Reserve, Hulun Buir, Inner Mongolia, China. By the visual interpretation method and three-period TM images, we generated landscape classification information with the support of the Arcmap software platform and in combination with ground investigation. The results are as follows: (1) There are four types of landscape in the nature reserve: steppe, wetland, sand and man-made landscapes. (2) The area of the steppe landscape has expanded, and the wetland landscape is gradually diminishing. The area of the sand landscape has remained stable. (3) According to landscape level analysis, there was obvious degradation of landscape in the nature reserve from 1995 to 2006. The change of landscape pattern is influenced mainly by climate change, and human disturbance plays a very important role. Environmental protection could slow the rate of degradation of the ecosystem.