Abstract: Aerjin Mountain National Nature Reserve is one of the major refuges for Tibetan wild donkey in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Understanding the effects of land use/land cover change (LUCC) on potential habitats of Tibetan wild donkey is the foundation to keep the survival and development of Tibetan wild donkey in the future. Based on the niche theory, we developed a GIS-based niche model to examine the impacts of LUCC on different kinds of suitable habitats for Tibetan wild donkey in 1985 when Aerjin Mountain National Nature Reserve was established and 2000 by using GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results suggested that highly and moderately suitable habitats were not obviously changed by LUCC. The highly suitable habitats were mostly located in the vicinities of Kardun inspection station and the corridor along Aerjin Mountain in the northeast of reserve. The moderately suitable habitats were mostly located around the highly suitable habitats. Between 1985 and 2000, the areas of highly and moderately suitable habitats increased slightly. The increased areas of highly suitable habitat were mainly came from those of moderately suitable habitats. Lowly suitable and unsuitable habitats were the main sources for increased moderately suitable habitats. The areas of lowly suitable habitats decreased sharply, changing into those of unsuitable habitats. The unsuitable habitats expanded continuously. The changing tendency of different habitats showed that the habitat patterns became more concentrating as the highly suitable and unsuitable habitats.

Key words: Malus hupehensis, photosynthesis., waterlogging, root architecture, hydrogen sulfide