Impact of Landscape Pattern on Habitat Quality in Karst Areas of Guizhou Province, China, and Analysis of Its Driving Factors

Understanding how landscape patterns affect habitat quality in fragile karst regions is critical for biodiversity conservation, yet the driving mechanisms remain poorly understood, particularly regarding karst geomorphic heterogeneity. Taking Guizhou Province, a typical karst area of southwestern China, this study integrated land-use and natural geographic data (DEM, karst landforms, soil types, slope, soil thickness, vegetation cover, bedrock exposure, and rocky desertification) from 2000 to 2020. We quantified landscape pattern indices and habitat quality using Fragstats and InVEST, then explored spatial relationships via bivariate spatial autocorrelation and geographically weighted regression (GWR). Results show that land-use intensity increased and landscape structure stabilized, while fragmentation slightly decreased, but connectivity weakened. Habitat quality declined 4.4% over two decades. Globally, habitat quality was positively correlated with aggregation, cohesion, contagion, and largest patch index, and negatively correlated with shape complexity, patch density, diversity, and splitting indices. Locally, six karst zones exhibited distinct clustering patterns, revealing nonlinear interactions between natural vulnerability (e.g., bedrock exposure, thin soil) and human activities. After 2010, the dominant driver shifted from natural conditions to human–land interactions, with human activities contributing approximately 60% of habitat quality degradation. These findings provide a quantitative, spatially explicit basis for ecological zoning and differentiated policy making in Guizhou and similar fragile regions.