Relationship between intensive utilization and environmental pressure of cultivatedland: a case study on 780 cropland parcels in Tarim River Basin

Intensive degree (ID) is a common index used to judge the effectiveness of land utilization. With increasing ID, cultivatedlands generate certain environmental pressures from extensive use of agro-chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides, and mulching,etc. This paper analyzed the intensity of utilization and environmental pressure of 780 cropland parcels in the Tarim River Basin(TRB) using data acquired from household questionnaire survey. The aim of the study was to explore environmental pressures generatedby highly intensive utilization of cultivated lands. The results showed that intensive utilization of cultivated lands caused somedegrees of environmental pressure in TRB study area. Environmental load ratio (ELR) of investigated cultivated lands revealedchanging trends with increasing IDs of cropland parcels. In 75.90% of the cropland parcels with ID < 1.0 Yuan·m^?2, ELR increasedwith increasing ID. ELR change in 18.60% of cropland parcels with ID in the range of 1~1.5 Yuan·m^?2 showed a stable trend relativeto increasing ID. Only in 5.50% of cropland parcels with ID > 1.5 Yuan·m^?2 did LER decrease with increasing ID. Differences ininput structures in cultivated lands were the main driver of the variations in ELR. Rise in the proportion of non-renewable emergyinput resulted in increasing ELR. However, with the increasing non-renewable emergy input, ELR rise was restrained by enhancedrenewable emergy input. To a certain degree, differences in the trends of cropland parcel ELR suggested that in the study area, theutilization of most cropland parcels was primarily intensive. However, some cropland parcels had been transformed into advanceduse intensity. Environmental pressure of cultivated lands was related to crop type and cropland parcel size. For cropland parcels under wheat and fruits, ELR at any scale parcel increased with increasing ID. For cotton fields, small-scale parcel ELR increased with increasing ID. It, however, showed no obvious ELR change for large-scale cotton fields (>0.33 hm²). For cucurbits fields, LER wasstable due to low and stable ID driven by the predominantly small-scale cropland parcels. However, LER increased with increasingID once parcel size exceeded 0.33 hm². It suggested that alleviation measures of environmental pressure of cultivated lands should beon the basis for crop type and cropland area.