Assessment of the dynamic ecological networks on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using human's digital footprints

Intense human activities have disintegrated continuous habitats to smaller patches and subsequently pose threats to ecological safety. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is a prestigious reserve for many high-plateau wild life species and its fragile ecological environment is under increased pressure of human activities. It is not clear how short-term dynamic human activities may impact the ecological networks on the QTP. In this study, we used Tencent’s high spatial- and temporal-resolution location request data to portray the human digital footprints over the QTP and examined their impacts on the dynamic changes of the ecological networks. We identified 123 ecological sources and 333 ecological corridors. The human digital footprints in summer poses significant pressure to the ecological networks on the QTP, as suggested by the increased cost distance in 89.79% of the key corridors and 46.19% of the potential corridors. As compared to that of the winter, the ecological networks in the protected areas located in the scenic areas in eastern QTP suffers more pressure, the summer cost distance of Wolong national reserve, Taohe national reserve and Yellow River Shouqu national reserve increased by 1.16%, 0.7% and 0.33% respectively. The area with increased cost distance in summer outside of the protected areas is 6.5 times more than that inside. In addition, adding stepping stones in the ecological network optimization process would better improve the ecological connectivity of the QTP. Our results show that Tencent’s location-request data could be used to evaluate the dynamic impacts of human activities on the ecological networks across a large geographical space. This study provides solid scientific support for stakeholders to make wise policies to boost economy development while ensure ecological security on the QTP.