Abstract: Based on the five periods of land use and cover data from 1980 to 2018, the temporal and spatial changes and landscape pattern evolution of ecological land in the west bank of the Pearl River Delta were analyzed by using land use dynamic degree, land use transfer matrix and landscape pattern index. The results showed that the ecological land in the west bank of the Pearl River Delta was mainly woodland, water area and grassland. A large amount of construction land occupied ecological land, and ecological land showed a decreasing trend. On the whole, in the southeast and central parts, more ecological land was transferred out, while less was transferred in; in the northwest and south parts, less ecological land was transferred out and more was transferred in. Among them, the areas with the largest reduction of ecological land were concentrated in Guangzhou, Foshan and other central cities, and Foshan, Zhuhai and Zhongshan were the main water transfer areas, showing a decentralized pattern from more to less and from concentration to fragmentation. The landscape diversity and evenness of ecological land increased, the patch types tended to be diversified, and the spatial connectivity within the landscape decreased, showing a trend of reduction and fragmentation. The landscape fragmentation rate of ecological land slowed down from 2010 to 2018.

Key words: ecological land, temporal and spatial change, landscape pattern, west bank of Pearl River Delta