Investigating the Dynamic Change and Driving Force of Isolated Marsh Wetland in Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

Abstract

Isolated marsh wetlands are crucial for maintaining regional hydrological connectivity and biological contiguity. The Sanjiang Plain is the most typical area of marsh wetland change in China. A large number of isolated marshy wetlands have been formed here due to natural and anthropogenic influences. However, there have been few quantitative studies of the dynamics of isolated marsh wetlands and their drivers at the regional scale. This study used Landsat series image data provided by the Google Earth Engine. Through field surveys, combined with visual interpretation and the Random Forest Algorithm, the distributional changes in isolated marsh wetlands, non-isolated marsh wetlands, and natural marsh wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain from 1975 to 2020 were identified and extracted. The dynamic change characteristics as well as the patch importance values (dIIC) of isolated and non-isolated marsh wetlands were analyzed using the dynamic degree, standard deviation ellipse model, and the integral index of connectivity (IIC). Finally, the driving factors and interactions affecting the distribution of isolated marsh wetlands were analyzed by the Geodetector model. The results show that (1) the temporal dynamics of the three types of marsh wetlands are less than 0 from 1975 to 2020, and the temporal dynamics of isolated marsh wetlands are the largest. The lost wetlands were concentrated in the northeastern and east–central regions of the Sanjiang Plain. The center of mass of the standard deviation ellipse moved from northeast to southwest, and the isolated marsh wetlands moved the most. (2) The IIC of non-isolated marsh wetlands and natural marsh wetlands decreased and then increased, and the non-isolated marsh wetlands with high-grade connectivity were mainly distributed in the northeastern and east–central regions. On the other hand, the IIC of isolated marsh wetlands increased and then decreased, and the isolated marsh wetlands with high-grade connectivity were mainly distributed in the northeastern region. (3) The elevation is the most important driving factor affecting the distribution of isolated marsh wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain. The interaction between the driving factors had a significantly higher effect on the distribution of isolated marsh wetlands than that of a single driving factor, with the strongest interaction between aspect and elevation in 1975, 1986, 2000, and 2010, and between aspect and slope in 2020.