斯里兰卡亚洲象栖息地是全球重要的亚洲象保护区，象群分布密度约为其他地区的10倍，但由于生境破碎与丧失以及人象冲突等原因导致亚洲象数量急剧下降。对斯里兰卡亚洲象栖息地的生境质量监测与评估能够为亚洲象及其栖息地的保护政策制定与规划提供理论依据，并在全球物种多样性保护中具有重要意义。为评估斯里兰卡亚洲象栖息地的生境质量，综合考虑亚洲象栖息地需求以及影响亚洲象栖息地的关键要素，应用InVEST-HQ模型来估算生境质量指数，同时分析亚洲象栖息地生境质量在海拔梯度及植被覆盖梯度上的分布状况；随后引入空间自相关分析方法在像元尺度上探讨亚洲象栖息地生境质量的空间分布模式与时间演化过程，进而分析栖息地内不同保护区和气候分区的生境质量所存在的空间分异特征。研究结果表明：在空间分布上，斯里兰卡亚洲象栖息地生境质量具有高度聚集性，空间异常值不显著。生境质量高值区主要集中在中低海拔、植被覆盖情况较好、保护区范围密集的区域；生境质量低值区集中于耕地面积大、海拔偏高的区域。在梯度分布上，斯里兰卡亚洲象栖息地生境质量对海拔和植被覆盖度均具有显著线性相关关系，且在较低海拔和较高植被覆盖度梯度上存在聚集现象。在区域尺度上，斯里兰卡亚洲象栖息地生境质量存在显著的地域差异性。栖息地内自然保护区的生境质量明显高于非自然保护区，其中严格自然保护区的生境质量相对较高；热带雨林气候带的生境质量高值聚类大于其余气候分区，而热带疏林草原气候带与热带季风气候带生境质量受到季节性降水的影响较大，高值像元占比偏少。在时间尺度上，斯里兰卡亚洲象栖息地的生境质量总体呈现先降低后趋于平缓的态势。1995年—2010年，生境质量高值聚类占比明显减少，低值聚类占比缓慢上升；2010年—2020年生境质量低值占比有小幅度下降，高值聚类逐渐增加，生境质量逐渐稳定并呈缓慢上升的趋势。

Asian elephant habitat of Sri Lanka is one of the most important elephants protected area which the population density of Asian elephants is large in Sri Lanka more than tenfold with other regions, but habitat fragmentations and human-elephant conflicts result in a number of elephant populations declined dramatically. This study aimed to estimate the spatio-temporal pattern and differentiation of habitat quality to evaluate the status of Asian elephant habitat conservation in Sri Lanka.In this study, we applied the InVEST-HQ model to calculate habitat quality index with consideration of habitat requirements and the influence factors of Asian elephant in the period of 1995 to 2020. DEM and NDVI were used to analyze the numerical distribution of habitat quality at different elevation gradients and vegetation cover gradients. Meanwhile, Spatial autocorrelation methods were used to quantify the spatial patterns of habitat quality in different protected areas and climate classifications.The results showed that the overall habitat quality of Asian elephant habitat in Sri Lanka was relatively low (the percentage of low level was above 47%) and had a significant linear correlation between habitat quality and elevation and vegetation fraction coverage. Habitat quality was concentrated in low elevation gradient (elevation less than 500m) and high vegetation fraction coverage gradient (greater than 0.5). The spatial pattern of habitat quality was significantly positive autocorrelation which indicated a high spatial agglomeration was distributed over total Asian elephant habitat with high-high and low-low clustering. Different protected areas and climate classifications had a conspicuous variation in the spatial clustering of habitat quality. In the period of 2010 to 2020, the percentage of high-high clustering had a little increasing tendency and the percentage of low-low clustering declined, which could embody habitat quality was tended to stable in Asian elephant habitat of Sri Lanka.Our study suggested that habitat quality evaluation should be considered the influence of spatial interaction to quantitatively analyze the spatial pattern, which could provide a new approach to evaluate and understand the status of specific species conservation based on remote sensing and geographic information technology.