Abstract
As “kidneys of the earth”, wetlands play an important role in ameliorating weather conditions, flood storage, and the control and reduction of environmental pollution. With the development of local economies, the wetlands in both the Amazon and Yangtze River Basins have been affected and threatened by human activities, such as urban expansion, reclamation of land from lakes, land degradation, and large-scale agricultural development. It is necessary and important to develop a wetland ecosystem health evaluation model and to quantitatively evaluate the wetland ecosystem health in these two basins. In this paper, GlobeLand30 land cover maps and socio-economic and climate data from 2000 and 2010 were adopted to assess the wetland ecosystem health of the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins on the basis of a pressure-state-response (PSR) model. A total of 13 indicators were selected to build the wetland health assessment system. Weights of these indicators and PSR model components, as well as normalized wetland health scores, were assigned and calculated based on the analytic hierarchy process method. The results showed that from 2000 to 2010, the value of the mean wetland ecosystem health index in the Yangtze River Basin decreased from 0.482 to 0.481, while it increased from 0.582 to 0.593 in the Amazon River Basin. This indicated that the average status of wetland ecosystem health in the Amazon River Basin is better than that in the Yangtze River Basin, and that wetland health improved over time in the Amazon River Basin but worsened in the Yangtze River Basin.
Highlights
Wetlands are biologically diverse and productive transitional areas between the land and open water
In Chongqing, Wuhan, and Shanghai, high urbanization rates, the degree of landscape fragmentation, and low net primary productivity (NPP) were the main reasons for poor wetland health
Based on the PSR model and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, a wetland ecosystem health assessment model was established in this paper
Summary
Wetlands are biologically diverse and productive transitional areas between the land and open water. They are characterized by waterlogged soil overlaid by shallow water with interspersed submerged or emergent vegetation [1]. Wetlands play an important role in flood prevention, water purification and control, air purification, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity conservation. The world’s wetlands are pit stops for migratory birds, offering protection and food before the birds continue on to their final destination [2]. The health of inland wetlands has significant influence on the health of associated terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by affecting the ecological stability of regional river basins [3]. The ecosystem health of inland wetlands is, of global importance
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