Abstract
Suaeda salsa (S. salsa) is an important ecological barrier and tourism resource in coastal wetland resources, and assessing changes in its health is beneficial for protecting the ecological health of wetlands and increasing finances. The aim was to explore improvements in the degradation of S. salsa communities in the Liao River Estuary National Nature Reserve since a wetland restoration project was carried out in Panjin, Liaoning Province, China, in 2015. In this study, landscape changes in the reserve were assessed based on Sentinel-2 images classification results from 2016 to 2019. A pressure-state-response framework was constructed to assess the annual degradation of S. salsa communities within the wetlands. The assessment results show that the area of S. salsa communities and water bodies decreased annually from 2016 to 2019, and the increased degradation indicators indicate a state of continued degradation. The area of types such as aquaculture ponds and Phragmites australis communities did not change much, while the estuarine mudflats increased year by year. The causes of S. salsa community degradation include anthropogenic impacts from abandoned aquaculture ponds and sluice control systems but also natural impacts from changes in the tidal amplitude and soil properties of the mudflats. The results also indicate that the living conditions of S. salsa in the Liao River estuary wetlands are poor and that anthropogenic disturbance is necessary to restore the original vegetation abundance.
Highlights
Published: 4 January 2022The Suaeda salsa (S. salsa) community is a common vegetation in coastal wetland ecosystems, usually growing in the shallows near the coast, and is highly salt tolerant.S. salsa is widely distributed in coastal and north-western China, Central Asia and Europe, and it has a role in improving the physical and chemical properties of soils, providing habitat for animals, coping with climate change and maintaining the ecological functions of wetlands [1,2,3,4,5]
The results indicate that the S. salsa community shrank significantly from 8.027 km2 to 3.115 km2 from 2016 to 2019, and the loss rate reached 1.228 km2 ·year−1
We tracked the dynamic changes of S. salsa in the Liao River Estuary National Nature Reserve from 2016 to 2019 by classifying and monitoring Sentinel-2 historical images and assessed the health status of S. salsa using a pressure state response (PSR) model
Summary
Published: 4 January 2022The Suaeda salsa (S. salsa) community is a common vegetation in coastal wetland ecosystems, usually growing in the shallows near the coast, and is highly salt tolerant.S. salsa is widely distributed in coastal and north-western China, Central Asia and Europe, and it has a role in improving the physical and chemical properties of soils, providing habitat for animals, coping with climate change and maintaining the ecological functions of wetlands [1,2,3,4,5]. The Suaeda salsa (S. salsa) community is a common vegetation in coastal wetland ecosystems, usually growing in the shallows near the coast, and is highly salt tolerant. The Liao River Estuary National Nature Reserve in China is home to a community of S. salsa, which grows in April and May each year and turns from green to red in August and September, creating the famous ‘red beach’ landscape, which has become an important ecotourism resource for increasing revenue [5]. From 1988 to 2009, the entire wetland has been in a state of degradation due to natural and human factors (e.g., aquaculture ponds and drought), especially the ‘red beach’ landscape consisting of the S. salsa community, which constrains the development of the local tourism industry and threatens the wetland’s ecological health [6,7]. The shrinking of the “red beach” has received widespread attention
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