Variations in fish habitat fragmentation caused by marine reclamation activities in the Bohai coastal region, China

Abstract

Due to the development of the social economy and population density pressure, coastal reclamation activities have rapidly increased throughout coastal regions in China and have had a significant negative impact on fish habitat fragmentation (especially on the habitat of the early life history stage of fish, ELHSF). However, few studies have focused on the negative ecological impacts of reclamation patches on ELHSF habitats (such as spawning, nursery, and feeding grounds). Data on marine reclamation were extracted from 49 Landsat remote sensing images from 7 different periods from 1985 to 2015, and ichthyoplankton data from 1982 to 2014 were compiled. The trend of fragmentation showed that the number of artificial heterogeneous patches significantly increased, and the isolation of habitat landscape became more intense. As a result, the spatial patterns of ichthyoplankton habitat rapidly transformed from a continuous and integral distribution to a divided and fragmented distribution, which drastically changed numerous environmental factors and deeply reshaped normal fish recruitment activities by impacting the number and abundance of ELHSF.