Geoecological effects of land cover changes during 1992–2020

The transformation of land use and land cover that results from increasing anthropogenic pressure is a most important factor of global environmental change. Numerous studies have been carried out on global, continental, country scale, as well as for individual regions and cities. Much less frequently, the dynamics of land cover and the associated processes are studied within the boundaries of natural landscapes. Meanwhile, it is this approach that allows us to determine the zonal specifics of geoecological processes caused by land use and land cover changes. Therefore the purpose of the article is to determine significant directions of the global land cover transformation within the boundaries of ecological zones over a thirty-year period (1992–2020). Geospatial data from the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative ESA CCI LC were used as a source. The study included several stages: 1) inventory and mapping of the areas of land cover change and types of transitions between different land cover classes during 1992–2020 for 20 ecological zones (the database includes 11 thousand areas characterized by 7 parameters, namely transition type, process coding, initial and final land cover class, number of cells, number of areas, area of changes); 2) grouping of the identified 867 types of transitions according to the transformation processes and analysis of the manifestation of processes in each ecological zone; 3) assessment of the direction of identified changes and their possible geoecological consequences. As a result, the main geoecological processes of land cover transformation were determined, and their zonal specificity was identified, including differences in their manifestation in forest and treeless zones, and within the mountain systems of various belts. It has been found that about 17% of territories with land cover changes are characterized by a decrease or loss of biological productivity, which are a consequence of desertification and deforestation of lands. 21% of such territories have underwent the expansion of the area of anthropogenically modified and technogenic landscapes. About a third of all changes are characterized by the processes of eco-rehabilitation and restoration of the ecological potential of lands. The identified areas of changes could be considered as stages of dynamic transformation of natural-anthropogenic systems and modification of their ecosystem functions, which require more detailed study.