Response of Landscape Evolution to Human Disturbances in the Coastal Wetlands in Northern Jiangsu Province, China

Linlin Cui,Yanhui Chen,Guosheng Li,Lijuan Li

doi:10.3390/rs13112030

Abstract

Human disturbance is one of the essential driving forces of landscape evolution. The quantitative evaluation of the spatial and temporal characteristics of landscape evolution and its relationship with human disturbance are of great significance to regional ecological protection and management and are crucial for achieving coordinated socioeconomic development and ecological–environmental protection. In this study, we took the coastal wetlands in northern Jiangsu province, China, as the research area, and proposed a quantitative evaluation method for directional landscape evolution. On this basis, the spatiotemporal characteristics of the landscape evolution from 1980 to 2020 and the relationship with human disturbance were quantitatively evaluated by combining a human disturbance index and statistical methods. The results showed that: (1) The area of the natural wetlands decreased significantly over the past 40 years, while the areas of artificial wetlands and non-wetlands increased significantly. (2) The landscape evolution process was dominated by the degradation process. The main types of degradation were natural wetland conversion to artificial wetland and non-wetland areas and Spartina alterniflora invasion. The restoration type was mainly restoration among artificial and natural wetlands. (3) The degradation of wetland landscapes demonstrated a southward shift trend and the spatial consistency with the change of the human disturbance index was high (the correlation coefficient was 0.89). (4) The human disturbance index was significantly and positively correlated with the rate of degradation, with a correlation coefficient of 0.43, and was not significantly and positively correlated with the restoration rate, with a correlation coefficient of 0.14. The findings in this paper provide additional information and theoretical guidance for the control of coastal wetland development and utilization, as well as for achieving coordinated wetland resource development together with utilization and ecological protection in the coastal wetlands of Jiangsu province, China.

Highlights

A landscape is a heterogeneous geographical unit consisting of different ecosystem types over a certain extent of land [1]
We revealed the relationship between landscape evolution and the human disturbance index and provided a scientific basis for the optimization of the wetland landscape pattern, ecological environmental protection, and management
The natural wetlands decreased by 2344.83 km2, accounting for 33.18% of the total study area (7068.22 km2 ), with an average annual decrease rate of 58.62 km2 /year (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

A landscape is a heterogeneous geographical unit consisting of different ecosystem types over a certain extent of land [1]. Coastal wetlands are important habitats and breeding grounds for offshore organisms and migration transit stations for birds, and are precious wetland resources with important ecological functions, such as water conservation, water purification, soil and water conservation, climate regulation and biodiversity protection functions [2,3]. They are intersection areas for four major domains (the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere), with frequent material–energy exchange, as well as transition zones of sea–land ecosystems, with high degrees of vulnerability and sensitivity [2,3,4].

Results

Discussion

Conclusion