KARST ROCKY DESERTIFICATION: FORMATION BACKGROUND, EVOLVING AND COMPREHENSIVE TAMING
喀斯特石漠化的形成背景、演化与治理

Karst rocky desertification is not only a geo-ecological disaster induced by uplift of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in its southeast flank, but also a critical factor to constrict the social and economic development of Southwest China. It is not an absolute natural process, and relates to human activity tightly. It is a process of land degradation involving serious soil erosion, vast exposure of basement rocks, drastic decrease of soil productivity and the appearance of a desert-like landscape. In essence, karst rocky desertification is caused by irrational, intensive land use in fragile karst geo-ecological environment. The process is expanding rapidly, and it is daily reducing the living space of residents and is the root of disasters and poverty in the karst areas of Southwest China. Therefore, it possesses natural and social characteristics obviously. This paper expounds emphatically the formation character and evolving mode of karst rocky desertification and its guidance significance to comprehensive harnessing from the angles of geological and ecological viewpoints. Soil and vegetation are the most sensitive elements in karst mountain areas of Southwest China and have obvious fragile characteristics compared with non-karst areas. The rapid variation of karst soil and vegetation under anthropogenic disturbance induces the changes of surface hydrological conditions and the formation of karst rocky desertification. It is specially pointed out the influence of difference of lithology of basement carbonate (carbonate rock and dolomite), the diversity of eco-environmental types and the evolving modes and processes of plants on the operation mechanism of karst eco-system and its practical guidance to ecological rehabilitation. Finally, this paper puts forward some suggestions and opinions about land use patterns and ecological rehabilitation as well as the research trends in the future.