ORIGINAL ARTICLE Rocky desertification and its causes in karst areas: a case study in Yongshun County, Hunan Province, China Y. J. Xiong Æ G. Y. Qiu Æ D. K. Mo Æ H. Lin Æ H. Sun Æ Q. X. Wang Æ S. H. Zhao Æ J. Yin Received: 30 May 2007 / Revised: 19 May 2008 / Accepted: 9 June 2008 / Published online: 27 June 2008 Ó Springer-Verlag 2008 Abstract Rocky desertification, a process of land degra- dation characterized by soil erosion and bedrock exposure, is one of the most serious land degradation problems in karst areas, and is regarded as an obstacle to local sus- tainable development. It is well known that human activities can accelerate rocky desertification; however, the effects of climate change on rocky desertification in karst areas are still unclear. This study focused on the effects of temperature and precipitation changes and human activities on rocky desertification in karst areas to determine the impacts of climate change and human disturbances on rocky desertification. Areas of different level of rocky desertification were obtained from Landsat TM (1987) and Landsat ETM+ (2000) images. The results show that, although the total desertification area increased by only 1.27% between 1987 and 2000, 17.73% of the slightly desertified land had degraded to a moderate or intense level, 2.01 and 15.71%, respectively. Meanwhile, between 1987 and 2000, the air temperature increased by 0.7°C, and precipitation increased by 170 mm. Statistical results indicate that the increase in precipitation was caused by heavy rainfall. In addition, under the interactive influences of heavy rainfall and temperature, the average karst dis- solution rate was about 87 m 3 km -2 a -1 during the 14 years in the study area. Further analysis indicated that rocky desertification was positively related with the increase in temperature and precipitation and especially with the heavy rainfall events. Climate change accelerated rocky desertification in the karst areas. Keywords Remote sensing Á Karst rocky desertification Á Temperature Á Heavy rainfall Introduction Climate change refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, which persists for an extended period (Houghton et al. 2001). Climate exerts strong influences on the environ- ment, especially precipitation and temperature, which are two key factors that determine the potential distribution of terrestrial vegetation and constitute principal factors in the genesis and evolution of soil (Sivakumar 2006). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00254-008-1425-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Y. J. Xiong Á G. Y. Qiu (&) Á S. H. Zhao Á J. Yin College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Xinjiekouwai St. 19th, 100875 Beijing, People’s Republic of China e-mail: gqiu@ires.cn Y. J. Xiong e-mail: xiongyj@ires.cn G. Y. Qiu State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, 100875 Beijing, People’s Republic of China D. K. Mo Á H. Lin Á H. Sun Research Center of Forestry Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Shaoshan Road 498th, 410004 Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China Q. X. Wang Asia Water Environment Section, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, 305-8506 Tsukuba, Japan 123 Environ Geol (2009) 57:1481–1488 DOI 10.1007/s00254-008-1425-7