Dominant Driver Research Articles

Dominant drivers of vegetation changes in key ecological barrier of northeastern Tibetan Plateau since 2000: Human impacts or natural forces?

Human activities and natural forces have profoundly influenced vegetation ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau over the recent decades. However, contributions of these two driving forces to vegetation changes remain controversial, especially in the ecological barriers like the Qilian Mountains (QM) in the northeast where many protecting measures and strategies were applied to enhance ecosystem stability and services. Our study employed a process-based model and a multi-perspective assessment method to determine dominant drivers of vegetation changes in the QM since 2000. The result indicated that human activity changes contributed 40.74% to the significant vegetation amelioration of the QM as a whole, which is comparable to natural forces. Areas dominated by human activity changes accounted for 18.42% of the entire region, which were mainly distributed in grassland restoration area, oasis agricultural area and forestry protection area. In these areas, increased human activities (including desertified grassland restoration, agricultural irrigation and fertilization, forest protections and afforestation) mainly promoted the vegetation amelioration. Yet, natural forces resulted in amelioration in partial alpine grasslands in southeastern QM, accounting for 10.53% in area. Areas dominated by both human activity changes and natural forces, mainly in grazing grasslands, accounted for 47.80%. Variations in grazing intensity and climate jointly determined fluctuations in vegetation therein. Additionally, there remained 23.25% areas lack of obvious drivers, generally with sparse vegetation. Ecological protections and agricultural measures significantly promoted the vegetation amelioration of the QM since 2000. The findings could provide essential insights for protection and construction of the ecological barriers in the Tibetan Plateau.

Editorial

As science has expanded in size and recognition as the dominant driver of innovation and economic growth, the need for studies to analyze and characterize the contributions made by research in each field of knowledge and related research areas from a critical standpoint has become increasingly prominent in international journals [...]

Automated identification of earthen berms in Western US rangelands from LiDAR‐based digital elevation models

AbstractEarthworks such as earthen berms have been constructed across the western US since the late 1800s to mitigate erosion in landscapes where water is both the dominant driver of erosion and the limiting resource for biota. Berms alter hydrologic, geomorphic and ecologic processes by intercepting runoff and altering patterns of water availability in the landscape. Understanding site‐specific changes in process dynamics requires accurate mapping of berm locations and knowledge of their condition. This paper presents an automated, object‐based framework for identifying earthen berms from 1 m LiDAR‐derived digital elevation models in the western US rangelands. Geomorphon, a computer vision tool, was used to classify landforms and identify berm‐like landforms, including summits and ridges. Ten geomorphic and geometric attributes associated with each potential berm object were used to develop a machine‐learning model for distinguishing berms from natural summits and ridges. The model was trained and applied to independent test sites to identify and map berms. The mapped berms were compared with manually identified reference berms for accuracy assessment. The identification results achieved 79% to 87% recall, 82% to 92% precision and 81% to 89% F‐measure. We also explored the influence of training sample selection on model performance and conducted an analysis of attribute relative importance. The automated framework has the potential to be scaled up to larger areas in semi‐arid environments.

Intraseasonal relationship of winter temperatures in North America and warm sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Pacific

Winter temperatures in the North America (NA) exhibit evident intraseasonal variation, which has become more pronounced under global climate change. In particular, the wintertime relationship between NA temperatures and long-lasting positive sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the Northeast Pacific (NEP), known as warm blobs, has been hotly debated in recent years. However, their relationship on intraseasonal timescales remains unclear. Using reanalysis data and an Atmospheric General Circulation Model, this study reveals that the intraseasonal variation of atmospheric circulation is the primary factor to induce intraseasonal temperature anomalies in NA after classifying warm SSTA events based on their different evolutions. Moreover, the atmospheric circulation anomalies over the mid-to-high-latitude regions are in part contributed by the feedback of NEP warm SSTAs to the atmosphere. Specifically, for early-winter warm SSTA events (peaking in November), there are two intraseasonal reversals in geopotential height anomalies over the NEP and NA, corresponding to a “cold-warm-cold” temperature change in NA. However, for mid-winter warm SSTA events (peaking in January), the atmospheric circulation pattern is relatively stable, mainly characterized by a “west high-east low” dipole, associated with persistent cold anomalies in NA. Then, the role of warm SSTAs over the NEP in the intraseasonal temperature variation is generally verified by the numerical simulations. Hence, although the NEP warm SSTAs may not be the dominant driver of the intraseasonal variations of winter NA temperatures, we emphasize the implication of their evolutionary differences in reflecting the NA temperature variations, which contributes to better predictability.

Projected Increasing Negative Impact of Extreme Events on Gross Primary Productivity During the 21st Century in CMIP6 Models

AbstractIn the context of increasingly frequent and severe climate extremes, an understanding of the impacts of these events on gross primary production (GPP) and thus on land carbon uptake is crucial. However, research utilizing new model outputs to assess the future trends, characteristics, and driving factors of GPP reduction associated with extreme events remains limited. Here, we use model outputs from Phase Six of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) to investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of negative GPP extreme events during the 21st century. We find a notable increase in negative GPP extremes globally under the SSP5‐8.5 scenario. They are characterized by longer durations and larger sizes, despite the smaller number of events. Under the SSP1‐2.6 scenario, while the total negative GPP extremes remain relatively stable, hotspots, including tropical forests, southern China, and boreal forest zones, still experience increases in negative extremes. By attributing these GPP extremes to climate conditions, we identified compound hot and dry conditions, which contributed to over 40% of the negative GPP extremes under both scenarios, as the dominant driver, followed by single‐driver dry conditions. Under SSP5‐8.5, the increasing contribution of compound hot and dry conditions leads to greater GPP reductions through prolonged and intensified negative extreme events. Compared with CMIP5 models, CMIP6 models project an asymmetry of negative and positive GPP extreme events that favors more negative extremes across most regions. Our findings highlight the escalating damage from climate extremes on future ecosystem productivity, emphasizing the urgent need for effective mitigation and adaptation actions.

Influence of vegetation phenological carryover effects on plant autumn phenology under climate change

Vegetation phenological carryover effects refer to the influence of previous phenological events on the current or subsequent ones. These effects can modulate the responses of autumn phenology to climate change, but the magnitude and duration of this effect remain poorly understood. Therefore, we employed multiple remote sensing datasets from 1982 to 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere (> 30°N) and partial correlation to investigate the influence of the carryover effect and environmental factors on the end of the growing season (EOS) over time. The importance of the variables in the projection score was used to quantify their relative importance. Our results showed that the previous year's EOS had a robust positive impact on the EOS for 40.02 % of the study area during 1982–2015, which was mainly located in the northern 50°N region. In contrast, the start of the growing season (SOS) was the main contributor to the EOS during 2001–2018, mainly at 40°N-50°N and in northern Russia. The carryover effect persisted into the subsequent year, but its strength and positive impacts varied dramatically in the next year. Concurrently, the mean correlation coefficient between climate factors and EOS rose from 0.20 to 0.22. Notably, the correlation coefficient for frost day frequency increased significantly (P < 0.05) from 0.15 to 0.36, with its influence area expanding from 10.29 % to 11.85 % of the study area. Compared with climate factors, the phenological carryover effect was the dominant driver of the EOS for each vegetation type, accounting for 72.8 % and 44.23 % of the total pixels during 1982–2015 and 2001–2018, respectively. Our study reveals a cascade of ecological consequences that extend beyond the initial occurrence and emphasizes the interconnectedness of growth stages in the plant life cycle, providing valuable insights into the adaptability and vulnerability of plant communities.

Scale‐Dependent Drivers of Air‐Sea CO2 Flux Variability

AbstractIn climate studies, it is crucial to distinguish between changes caused by natural variability and those resulting from external forcing. Here we use a suite of numerical experiments based on the ECCO‐Darwin ocean biogeochemistry model to separate the impact of the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) growth rate and climate on the ocean carbon sink — with a goal of disentangling the space‐time variability of the dominant drivers. When globally integrated, the variable atmospheric growth rate and climate exhibit similar magnitude impacts on ocean carbon uptake. At local scales, interannual variability in air‐sea CO2 flux is dominated by climate. The implications of our study for real‐world ocean observing systems are clear: in order to detect future changes in the ocean sink due to slowing atmospheric CO2 growth rates, better observing systems and constraints on climate‐driven ocean variability are required.

Competing effects of wind and buoyancy forcing on ocean oxygen trends in recent decades

Ocean deoxygenation is becoming a major stressor for marine ecosystems due to anthropogenic climate change. Two major pathways through which climate change affects ocean oxygen are changes in wind fields and changes in air-sea heat and freshwater fluxes. Here, we use a global ocean biogeochemistry model run under historical atmospheric forcing to show that wind stress is the dominant driver of year-to-year oxygen variability in most ocean regions. Only in areas of water mass formation do air-sea heat and freshwater fluxes dominate year-to-year oxygen dynamics. The deoxygenation since the late 1960s has been driven mainly by changes in air-sea heat and freshwater fluxes. Part of this deoxygenation has been mitigated by wind-driven increases in ventilation and interior oxygen supply, mainly in the Southern Ocean. The predicted slowdown in wind stress intensification, combined with continued ocean warming, may therefore greatly accelerate ocean deoxygenation in the coming decades. The fact that the model used here, along with many state-of-the-art forced ocean models, underestimates recent ocean deoxygenation indicates the need to use forcing fields that better represent pre-industrial conditions during their spin-up.

Contrasting Supply Dynamics of Dissolved Iron and Nitrate Shape the Biogeography of Nutrient‐Limiting Conditions in the North Pacific

AbstractThe North Pacific is known with iron limitation for phytoplankton growth in the subarctic region and nitrogen limitation in the subtropical gyre. Although the growth rate of phytoplankton is determined by the concentration of limiting nutrient, the supply ratio of iron to nitrogen is suggested to be essential to this biogeographic pattern. However, the underlying dynamics determining the ratio remain largely unknown. We investigated mechanisms of dissolved iron (dFe) and nitrate (NO3−) transport to the euphotic zone of the North Pacific using an eddy‐resolvable biogeochemical model. We show that lateral advection and atmospheric deposition are dominant drivers for dFe transport, resulting in high Fe:N supply ratio in both subarctic and subtropical regions. Conversely, significant vertical supplies of NO3− through upwelling and diffusion processes markedly reduce the supply ratio in the subarctic region. These dynamics combined lead to high Fe:N supply ratio in the gyre and low ratio in the subarctic, ultimately driving high nitrogen fixation condition in the gyre and the iron‐limited phytoplankton growth condition in the subarctic region.

Identification of dominant drivers of streamflow spatiotemporal variations in typical mountainous areas in the Hexi Corridor, China

Study regionTypical mountain areas in the Hexi Corridor, China. Study focusWater security and ecosystem sustainability of arid inland river basins are highly dependent on upstream streamflow. However, due to the complex geographical environment and limited observation data in the study region, the attribution of spatiotemporal variations in streamflow influenced by climate change and/or human activities remains unclear. Here, we used partial least squares regression (PLSR) and the Budyko framework to unravel the dominant drivers of spatiotemporal variation in streamflow over the past 30 yr. New hydrological insight for the regionPrecipitation, topographic wetness index, slope, forest land, gross primary productivity, hydrological connectivity, soil organic carbon content, silt content, relative relief, NDVI and gravel content dominated spatial variation in streamflow. Temporal variation of streamflow was sensitive to precipitation and land surface. Specifically, increased precipitation and land surface alteration dominated the increase in streamflow in 50 % of the watersheds and the decrease in streamflow in 33 % of them, respectively. Further, land surface alteration was dominated by expansion of agricultural and built-up areas, weakened hydrological connectivity, increased landscape aggregation and forest cover. Controlling agricultural and built-up areas and the scale of afforestation, and focusing on the dynamics of hydrological connectivity and landscape patterns in the upstream reaches are imperative to maintain the security and sustainability of water resources in the arid inland river basins.

Historical expansion of tea plantations over 150years (1876-2023) in North Bengal, India.

The Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze agroforestry system has been a dominant driver of land transformation for over a century. However, most previous studies have not captured the dynamics of tea plantations since their inception. To address this research gap, this study investigates 150years (1876 to 2023) of tea area dynamics and two decades (2001-2022) of tree loss in the Bengal-Dooars region (Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts). Various data sources were employed, including Sentinel-2A imagery (10m), early twentieth century topographic maps at a 1:50,000 scale, and historical records from the British colonial period. Results revealed that the tea area expanded from 331 to 95,800ha (a 70% increase) during the study period. The 1-km grid-wise spatial analysis indicated that approximately 70% of the increase was attributed to the 60-90% and > 90% grid categories, signifying the expansion of large tea estates. Most tea gardens(TG) are sustained with trees, which can significantly contribute to carbon stock. Tree loss within and outside TG for 2001-2022 was analyzed using annual tree loss data at 30m from the Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform. Between 2001 and 2022, about 52.7% of tree loss was attributed to TG, although tea covers only 15.3% of the geographic area of the study region. Our findings highlight the historical expansion of tea plantations and their impact on natural land cover. We suggest that future studies address the mean age of TG along with tree fractions for improved carbon estimates.

Slow post-fire carbon balance recovery despite increased net uptake rates in Alaskan tundra

Abstract Increasing wildfire occurrence and intensity have immediate effects on northern ecosystems due to combustion of aboveground vegetation and belowground soil organic matter. These immediate impacts have indirect and longer term effects, including deepening of the active layer, changes in soil decomposition rates, and shifts in plant community composition. Despite the increasing fire impacts across the tundra region, the implications of wildfire on ecosystem carbon balance are not well understood. Using paired eddy covariance towers in unburned and burned tundra, we examined the effects of a 2015 wildfire on carbon dioxide and methane fluxes in a wetland tundra ecosystem in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, from 2020 to 2022. Wildfire increased the amplitude and variability of carbon uptake and release on seasonal and annual timescales and increased the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration. Seven years post fire, there was annual net uptake in both unburned and burned tundra based on net ecosystem exchange, with the sink strength of burned tundra exceeding that of the unburned tundra by 1.18 to 1.64 times. However, when considering emissions, it would take approximately 86 years to recover the carbon lost from the wildfire itself. Soil moisture was a dominant driver of fluxes and positively associated with higher rates of carbon dioxide uptake and release and methane release. This study underscores the importance of understanding the effects of wildfire-induced shifts on tundra carbon cycling, allowing better predictions of long-term landscape-scale climate feedbacks as the climate continues to warm.

Drivers of woody dominance across global drylands

Increases in the abundance of woody species have been reported to affect the provisioning of ecosystem services in drylands worldwide. However, it is virtually unknown how multiple biotic and abiotic drivers, such as climate, grazing, and fire, interact to determine woody dominance across global drylands. We conducted a standardized field survey in 304 plots across 25 countries to assess how climatic features, soil properties, grazing, and fire affect woody dominance in dryland rangelands. Precipitation, temperature, and grazing were key determinants of tree and shrub dominance. The effects of grazing were determined not solely by grazing pressure but also by the dominant livestock species. Interactions between soil, climate, and grazing and differences in responses to these factors between trees and shrubs were key to understanding changes in woody dominance. Our findings suggest that projected changes in climate and grazing pressure may increase woody dominance in drylands, altering their structure and functioning.

Causal Hierarchy in the Financial Market Network-Uncovered by the Helmholtz-Hodge-Kodaira Decomposition.

Granger causality can uncover the cause-and-effect relationships in financial networks. However, such networks can be convoluted and difficult to interpret, but the Helmholtz-Hodge-Kodaira decomposition can split them into rotational and gradient components which reveal the hierarchy of the Granger causality flow. Using Kenneth French's business sector return time series, it is revealed that during the COVID crisis, precious metals and pharmaceutical products were causal drivers of the financial network. Moreover, the estimated Granger causality network shows a high connectivity during the crisis, which means that the research presented here can be especially useful for understanding crises in the market better by revealing the dominant drivers of crisis dynamics.

The use of respiratory patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) in the management of COPD: Perceptions of Australian osteopaths

BackgroundPatient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are widely used to capture patients' perspectives of their health status and treatment outcomes and to enable practitioners to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions. The aim of this study was to explore Australian osteopaths’ perceptions of the use of respiratory PROMS in the management of chronic lung conditions. MethodsThis study drew on the social ecological model (SEM), which highlights the interdependence of contextual structures and processes. Osteopaths who were initially part of a larger mixed-methods study were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were thematically analysed using the SEM. ResultsSeven of the original study osteopaths were interviewed. When presented with a patient who had a co-morbid respiratory condition, they focused on the musculoskeletal aspects of that condition (intrapersonal factors). Participants described sporadic use of musculoskeletal and quality of life PROMs in practice, and scarce use of respiratory PROMs (intrapersonal and organizational factors). Participants’ perceptions of their scope of practice strongly influenced their use of respiratory PROMs (environmental factors). ConclusionIntrapersonal and environmental factors were dominant drivers for participants’ scant use of respiratory PROMs. Further education on the scope and contribution of osteopaths to the management of chronic lung conditions and the use of respiratory PROMS is called for to promote multidisciplinary patient care.

7214 A Retrospective Cohort Study on Prevalence Of Pituitary Adenomas in MEN2

Abstract Disclosure: R. Ghosh: None. N. Behiri: None. J. Glod: None. S. Gubbi: None. J. Klubo-Gwiezdzinska: None. Background: Multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) syndromes are autosomal dominant and present with tumors in at least two or more endocrine organs. MEN2 syndromes that are driven by germline rearranged during transfection (RET) gene pathogenic variants are divided into 2A consisting of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), parathyroid adenomas and pheochromocytoma and 2B presenting with MTC, pheochromocytoma, marfanoid habitus, mucosal neuromas and gastrointestinal ganglioneuromatosis. Pituitary adenomas have been rarely described in MEN2 and hence we conducted a retrospective chart review to determine their prevalence in MEN2. Methods: Retrospective chart screening of MEN2 patients followed at a tertiary referral center between August 1999- August 2022 was done to evaluate the prevalence of pituitary adenomas using biochemical hormonal evaluation and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of pituitary based on screening of clinical symptoms. Results: The study consisted of 91 patients (43 MEN2A and 48 MEN2B), aged 35.3±16.9 years (MEN2A) and 18.6±6.4 years (MEN2B), 20/43 (46.5%) women in MEN2A and 24/48 (50%) women in MEN2B. These patients were followed for median duration of 6.5 years (3.3-22) in MEN2A and 8.5 years (5.4-14.6) in MEN2B. RET mutation status was unavailable for 1 MEN2A patient out of 91 patients. Among MEN2A patients, majority (53.5%) were positive for RET C634X mutation followed by RET 804, 609, 631,620 and 666 mutations in the descending order. While in MEN2B cohort all patients were positive for M918T RET mutation. A total of 4/91 (4.4%) patients were found to have pituitary adenomas (3 MEN2B and 1 MEN2A). One patient had clinically symptomatic ACTH producing microadenoma which was surgically resected, and others have asymptomatic non-functioning adenomas. The patient with Cushing’s disease underwent three transsphenoidal resections leading to complete resolution but developed panhypopituitarism. Prevalence of pituitary adenomas in our cohort was significantly higher than the general population screened based on clinical suspicion (p&amp;lt;0.001). Conclusion: Prevalence of clinically symptomatic pituitary adenomas is 1 in 1000 in the general population (1). It is rarely associated with MEN2 syndromes and only few cases are reported in the literature (2). However, screening of all patients with MEN2 for pituitary adenomas, regardless of clinical suspicion, might lead to incidental discovery of asymptomatic pituitary pathology and can provide the actual prevalence. Further studies are needed to evaluate the genetics of these pituitary adenomas in MEN2 syndromes to investigate whether RET protooncogene is indeed the dominant molecular driver of these tumors.

Going to work sick: A scoping review of illness presenteeism among physicians and medical trainees.

Illness presenteeism (IP)-characterized by individuals working despite being sick-is a prevalent and complex phenomenon among physicians and trainees amidst competing priorities within medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic and growing attention to physician and trainee well-being have sparked renewed interest in IP. We conducted a scoping review to explore what is known about IP: more specifically, how IP is perceived, what approaches have been used to study the phenomenon and how it might have changed through the COVID-19 pandemic. The Arksey and O'Malley scoping review framework was used to systematically select and summarize the literature. Searches were conducted across four databases: Medline, Embase, PsycInfo and Web of Science. Quantitative and thematic analyses were conducted. Of 4277 articles screened, 45 were included. Of these, four were published after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. All studies framed IP as problematic for physicians, patients and health care systems. Dominant sociocultural drivers of IP included obligations towards patients and colleagues and avoiding the stigma of appearing vulnerable or even temporarily weak. Structural factors included heavy workload, poor access to health services and lack of sick leave policies for physicians. The pandemic does not appear to have affected IP-related causes or behaviours. Proposed solutions included both educational interventions and policy-driven changes. Despite being viewed in the literature as largely negative, IP remains highly prevalent among physicians and trainees. Our review highlights that IP among physicians is fraught with tensions: while IP seemingly contradicts certain priorities such as physician wellbeing, IP may be justified by fulfilling obligations to patients and colleagues. Future work should examine IP through diverse theoretical lenses to further elucidate its complexities and inform nuanced individual and systems-level interventions to minimize the negative consequences of IP.

Fertility Transitions in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: The Role of Preferences

AbstractSince the mid‐twentieth century, the Global South has experienced unprecedently rapid and pervasive changes in reproductive behavior with fertility declining from high pre‐transitional levels to below 3 births per woman in most low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). Over time a rough consensus has been reached on major theories about the causes of these declines. However, a controversy remains about the widely held view that changing reproductive preferences (i.e., declining desired family size and rising demand for birth limitation) are the dominant drivers of fertility transitions. Several studies question this conclusion and suggest instead that the rising implementation of existing demand is the main cause of the reproductive revolution in LMICs. The objective of this study is to reconcile the competing “demand” and “implementation” perspectives. This paper assesses the strengths and weaknesses of published decompositions which take trends in the observed total fertility and contraceptive prevalence and break them down into their respective demand and implementation components. The main conclusion from this exercise is that fertility transitions are driven by changes in both preferences and their implementation. Claims of a completely dominant role for either demand or implementation are based on flawed methods and hence must be rejected.

Exploring sea-ice transport dynamics at the eastern gate of the Ross Sea

As Antarctic sea-ice extent continues to reach record lows, significant efforts have been directed towards understanding the underlying processes and their regional differences within the Southern Ocean. Here, we explore the dynamics of zonal sea-ice transport at the eastern gate of the Ross Sea from 1988 to 2023 using GIOMAS-model and ERA5-reanalysis data. Our analysis reveals a modest overall increase in eastward sea-ice transport (3.721 ± 0.672 km³/month per decade), with diverging trends in the coastal and open ocean zones. Driven by easterly winds and the Antarctic Slope Current, the predominant westward transport in the coastal region experienced a significant rise during the early 2000s, followed by a steep decline post-2011. Conversely, driven by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the strong open-ocean transport exhibited a moderate increase towards the Amundsen Sea until the late 1990s, which was interrupted by a reversal in 2007. The variability of the zonal sea-ice transport and its underlying conditions (sea-ice concentration, thickness, and zonal drift) revealed considerable shifts throughout the different decades and on seasonal scales. During austral winter, approximately half of the zonal sea-ice transport variability seems to be driven by large-scale teleconnections, including the Southern Annular Mode, Southern Oscillation Index, Amundsen Sea Low and the Zonal Wave 3 with considerable impacts on the wind stress field. Whereas during summer, the Southern Oscillation Index emerges as the dominant driver, exhibiting a significant positive correlation (r=0.55, p<0.001) that reflects ENSO’s influence, while other teleconnections play minimal roles. Our study highlights the complex nature of sea-ice transport through the eastern gate of the Ross Sea towards the Amundsen Seas, where contrasting climatic conditions are known to occur.

Artificial river flow regulation triggered spatio-temporal changes in marine macrobenthos of the Yellow River Estuary

The Water Sediment Discharge Regulation (WSR) in the Yellow River transports a vast quantity of freshwater and materials to the Bohai Sea within 20 days, significantly altering the ambient environment of the estuary. To elucidate the ecological impacts of this typically artificial flood event, we investigated the benthic habitats and macrobenthic biodiversity within the Affected Core Area (ACA) influenced by this discharge. Our results show that: (1) The discharge created an area with extreme environmental conditions, extending from the southern estuary to Laizhou Bay. This led to a rapid transformation of the habitat, as evidenced by a significant increase in turbidity, ammonium, and silicate levels. Among these factors, nitrogen nutrients and pH were the dominant drivers of environmental filtration, shaping the macrobenthos community structure; (2) The changing habitat triggered spatial shifts in macrobenthos abundance based on the distance from the estuary. Compared to the northern estuary, species composition and C-diversity in the southern area decreased significantly. These changes collectively established a short-term biodiversity front in the estuary region; (3) Community stability declined, as evidenced by a 24.20% reduction in niche width for generalist species and a 90.91% shift in specialist species. Furthermore, the connectivity between species decreased, and the average path length of the network increased, resulting in a more fragmented community structure. Notably, some ecological patches dominated by generalist species (e.g. Alpheus distinguendus) emerged. These findings enhance our understanding of marine ecological responses to artificial flood events within the context of global environmental changes.