抄録
Long-term ecological restoration has promoted vegetation recovery across the Pisha sandstone region of the Yellow River Basin, yet why recovery remains spatially differentiated under a broadly shared restoration context is still poorly understood. This study examined how geomorphological setting and multidimensional topography organize vegetation recovery through nonlinear and interactive spatial responses. An integrated analytical framework was developed to resolve long-term recovery heterogeneity, geomorphological differentiation, nonlinear topographic responses, and multifactor spatial interactions. Vegetation cover increased overall but followed markedly heterogeneous recovery trajectories across the landscape. Distinct vegetation states among soil-covered, sand-covered, and exposed Pisha sandstone areas indicate that geomorphological setting provides an important environmental template for recovery. Vegetation responses to elevation, slope, and topographic position were nonlinear and range-dependent, whereas aspect showed comparatively weak marginal differentiation, revealing that topographic regulation varies substantially among terrain dimensions rather than following a uniform directional pattern. Multidimensional topographic combinations provided greater spatial explanatory power than individual factors, with particularly strong complementarity between broad-scale elevation and local topographic position. These findings indicate that regional ecological restoration does not produce spatially homogeneous recovery; instead, vegetation responses are progressively differentiated through geomorphological context, nonlinear topographic gradients, and complementary terrain structure. The study advances the interpretation of ecological recovery from regional greening patterns toward a nested spatial-filtering framework in which geomorphological background and multidimensional topography jointly organize recovery heterogeneity, providing a spatially explicit basis for context-dependent restoration assessment and management in erosion-prone fragile landscapes.
