Cause and Processes of Rocky Desertification Lands in Karst Areas of South China
中国南方岩溶区土地石漠化的成因与过程

The karst areas of south China are vulnerable ecological regions,where rocky desertification is widely developed.The article proposed a new concept of rocky desertification,realized that rocky desertification is the processes of land degradation with similar rocky desertification landscape which formed by degeneration of vegetation,erosion of soil,loss of surface water and the outcropping of bedrock under moist and semi-moist climatic environment and under the factors of human activity and(or) changes of climate etc.There are two causes of rocky desertification in karst areas of south China,the natural and the human driving factors.From geologic time to historical periods there experienced natural processes of rocky desertification.From historical periods to modern age there added human driving processes and human beings' activity fasten the development of rocky desertification.The initial and middle periods of Qing dynasty are important transition time,and from then on the human driving factors become the main influential factor.Rocky desertification process is the surface ecological processes including the processes of vegetation degeneration,soil erosion,water loss,bedrock dissolution and erosion and land biological productivity degeneration;its essence is the processes of land degradation forming similar rocky desertification landscape.