Abstract
Abstract. Hangzhou Bay is an important estuarial coastal wetland, which offers a large number of land and ecological resources. It plays a significant role in the sustainable development of resources, environment and economy. In this paper, based on the remote sensing images in 1996, 2005 and 2013, we extracted the coastal wetland data and analyzed the wetland landscape pattern of the Hangzhou Bay in the past 20 years. The results show that: (1) the area of coastal wetland is heading downwards in the recent decades. Paddy field and the coastal wetland diminish greatly. (2) the single dynamic degree of wetland of the Hangzhou Bay displays that paddy fields and coastal wetlands are shrinking, but lakes, reservoirs and ponds are constantly expanding. (3) the wetland landscape pattern index shows that total patch area of the coastal wetland and paddy fields have gradually diminished. The Shannon diversity index, the Shannon evenness index as well as the landscape separation index of the coastal wetlands in the Hangzhou Bay increase steadily. The landscape pattern in the study area has shown a trend of high fragmentation, dominance decreases, but some dominant landscape still exist in this region. (4) Urbanization and natural factors lead to the reduction of wetland area. Besides the pressure of population is a major threat to the wetland. The study will provide scientific basis for long-term planning for this region.
Highlights
Wetlands are the transitional ecosystems which exist between land forms and water bodies with unique hydrology, soils, vegetation and biological characteristics
The wetland landscape classification maps in there period were obtained through interpretation based on the remote sensing images of Hangzhou Bay in 1996, 2005 and 2013
The paper can provide some guidance to the utilization and protection of wetland in the Hangzhou Bay
Summary
Wetlands are the transitional ecosystems which exist between land forms and water bodies with unique hydrology, soils, vegetation and biological characteristics. They are well known as the "biological supermarkets" and "nature’s kidney" of the earth. Transition matrix, landscape index, cellular automaton and other simulation methods are mainly used in current research on landscape patterns. Quantitative analysis of landscape index is used to study the characteristics of wetland landscape patterns and its evolution. The final results of the dynamic change of wetland landscape characteristics are achieved by using the related software (Niu et al, 2004)
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