Abstract: The rapid economic development in recent years has caused many eco-environmental problems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Habitat quality is important for the restoration of the regional eco-environment. The development of forestry ecological projects has substantially increased vegetation coverage in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, improved ecosystem quality, and restrained the decline rate of habitat quality. Here, we evaluated the temporal and spatial variations of habitat quality in the Yangtze River Economic Zone from 2000 to 2015, as well as the impacts of the Yangtze River Shelterbelt Project and the Natural Forest Protection Project on the habitat quality, by applying InVEST module and setting up a single driving force scenario for forestry ecological projects. The results showed that habitat quality of the Yangtze River Economic Belt was lower in the east and higher in the west. The areas with low-level habitat quality were mainly distributed in the northern Yangtze River Delta, Jianghan Plain, and Sichuan Basin, while Yunnan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang had higher average habitat quality index. The implementation of forestry ecological project did not lead to a decisive change in the spatial distribution of habitat quality in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. From 2000 to 2015, the habitat quality of the Yangtze River Economic Belt was developing towards polarizations. Areas with medium-level habitat quality gradually shifted to low or high level, resulting in no changes of the average habitat quality index. Forestry ecological projects had a certain effect on the improvement of habitat quality, which was specifically manifested in further improving the habitat quality of areas under medium and high levels, but had minor effect on areas with low levels of habitat quality.

Key words: habitat quality, InVEST, forestry ecological project, Yangtze River Economic Belt.