Progressive landscape fragmentation in relation to cash crop cultivation

Cash crop cultivation has been a critical driver of land use change in many countries around the world. However, few efforts have been made to quantify the relationships between cash crop expansion and the subsequent landscape pattern changes. This paper characterized the process of cash crop expansion across Tiaoxi watershed (China) from 1985 to 2009 using multi-sensor and multi-temporal remotely sensed imageries. Correlations were identified between indicators of cash crop expansion (total area and total production of cash crops) and a family of landscape fragmentation metrics (patch density, edge density, landscape division index, effective mesh size, splitting index, Shannon's diversity index, and aggregation index). Results showed that Tiaoxi watershed experienced profound cash crop expansion and progressive landscape fragmentation. The cash crops spread in accessible and productive areas at the expense of paddy and forests. Social drivers of cash crop expansion included population growth, labor structure changes and market incentives. Indicators of cash crop expansion presented linear relationships with landscape fragmentation metrics. These findings evidenced that cash crop cultivation would significantly fragment landscapes. Our study contributed to understanding on the enlarging cultivation of cash crops and the associated modifications of landscape patterns in subtropical regions.