Ecological Disturbance Caused by Land Use Change in the Karst Area, China: A Combined Structural and Functional Perspective

Land use change is a fundamental factor affecting ecosystem’s structures and functions. However, few studies have explored the ecological disturbance caused by land use change from a combined structural and functional perspective. In this study, the ecological structural disturbance index (SDI) and functional disturbance index (FDI) were introduced to quantitatively evaluate ecological disturbance caused by land use change in a typical karst area—Huangping County, Guizhou Province, China during 2009–2019. Results show that although the area of ecological land increased during past 10 yr, there had been a fragmentation trend of ecological land. Agricultural occupation was more severe than construction encroachment on ecological land. The grids with negative structural disturbance were consistent with areas of obvious dynamic loss and gain of ecological land. Ecological fragmentation had a greater impact than habitat gain in grids with negative structural disturbance. The ecosystem service functions of supply, adjustment, support, and culture were obviously affected by land use change, and the total FDI reflects the trade-off among them. Negative FDI values were easily observed in the rocky desertification area or water and soil loss area. The combination analysis of the SDI and FDI indicated the characteristic of co-directional ecologically structural and functional disturbance in the majority of grids. The findings improve our understanding of multiple relationships among ecological disturbances and provide valuable information for guiding land use activities.