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The conservation efficacy of coastal wetlands in China based on landscape development and stress
Ocean and Coastal Management 175 (2019) 70–78
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The conservation efficacy of coastal wetlands in China based on landscape development and stress
T
Ziliang Guoa,b, Manyin Zhanga,b,∗ a b
Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China National Ecosystem Research Station of Hengshui Wetland, Hengshui, 053000, China
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Conservation efficacy Coastal zone Wetlands China Landscape
The coastal zone of China contains extensive coastal wetlands but it is also one of the most densely populated areas. Rapid changes of land use pattern associated with socio-economic development in the coastal zone have had tremendous impacts on the health of coastal wetlands and their provision of ecological services. In this study, we used a landscape development intensity index and landscape stress index to evaluate the conservation efficacy of the coastal zone and coastal protected areas along the coastline of China from 1990 to 2015. We then analyzed the impact of population density and gross domestic product (GDP) on landscape development intensity. The results showed that landscape development intensity in coastal zone increased over the 25 year period, but the growth rate of landscape development intensity and landscape stress slowed between 2005 and 2015. Higher levels of landscape development intensity were widespread in the coastal zone of northern China compared with southern China, and the coastal zones of the Huanghai Sea and the Bohai Sea were the focus of coastal wetlands conservation in mainland China. A number of coastal protected areas, including 33 coastal national nature reserves and 67 national special marine reserves, have been established in mainland China, protecting 16.80% of the coastline. Coastal wetlands have been effectively protected to some extent by building these protected areas, with results showing lower landscape development intensity. The conservation efficacy of coastal wetlands as a whole was affected by population expansion and GDP, but the effects were not necessarily all negative. A higher population density or GDP did not necessarily lead to stronger landscape development intensity in local areas.
1. Introduction
and economic development. Rapid land use change caused mainly by human activities in the coastal zone, such as urbanization, reclamation and dredging projects, has become one of the most important causes of coastal wetlands degradation (Fang et al., 2015; Pascual-Aguilar et al., 2015; Schleupner, 2008). Most major cities are found along the coastline worldwide, and more than half of the population living in cities live within 100 km of the coast (Barragán and Andrés, 2015; Hu and Yao, 2004). Therefore, many areas are facing a high intensity of human disturbance with rapid changes in land use and landscape along the world's coastlines (Cloern et al., 2015; Alves et al., 2013). Human interference and development have become one of the main reasons for habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss and the degradation of environmental quality (Betts et al., 2017; Sala et al., 2000). Moreover, the coastal zone is vulnerable to many aspects of landscape pressure and climate change (Osland et al., 2016; Doody, 2013). Changes in landscape pattern and their ecological effect in the
Wetlands provide human beings with many irreplaceable ecosystem services and play an important role in regulating climate, improving water quality and maintaining biodiversity (Cui, 2004 & 2012; Costanza et al., 1997). Hence, wetlands are an important ecological landscape, and together with forest and oceans are known as the most important ecosystem in the world (Yu et al., 2015). Coastal wetlands are located in the coastal zone and link terrestrial and marine ecosystems, forming a special type of wetland. Coastal zones are also ecotones with strong biogeochemical gradients, unique sediment characteristics and rich biodiversity because of the interactions of land and sea (Yang et al., 2017; Steinmuller et al., 2016; Dijk et al., 2015). Furthermore, the coastal zones are strongly linked to human survival and development because of the advantages of natural resources and water environment (Barragán and Andrés, 2015). As a result, coastal zones have developed into the most populated areas in the world, with rapid social
∗
Corresponding author. Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry behind Summer Palace, Beijing, China. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Z. Guo), [email protected] (M. Zhang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2019.03.018 Received 26 November 2018; Received in revised form 8 March 2019; Accepted 14 March 2019 0964-5691/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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China has a large marine area and a long coastline. The coastal zone contains more than 40% of the total population in China and is the most economically developed area in the country. With the rapid development of the economy, the demand for construction land has increased rapidly. The coastal wetland ecosystem provides abundant ecological goods and services for human society (Camacho-Valdez et al., 2014). In addition, the coastal zone in China located on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership Flyway Network (Xia et al., 2017), provides suitable habitat for large numbers of migratory waterfowl including shorebirds, Anatidae and Gruidae, as well as various marine organisms including Sousa chinensis, Dugong dugon and Phoca largha (Chen, 2006).
coastal zone have become a key research objective for multiple disciplines in relation to the increasing development intensity and population density of the coastal zone (Suo et al., 2016). Many scientific investigators have carried out research into the impacts of changes in landscape patterns in the coastal zone on material recycling (Mu et al., 2017), the hydrological processes of estuaries (Rothenberger et al., 2009) and biodiversity in wetlands (Fraixedas et al., 2015). Recent research has identified that coastal wetlands worldwide have suffered severe degradation under the combined stress of intensified human activities and global change (Luo et al., 2015). The response of processes to changes in landscape patterns in coastal zones has also been analyzed in many studies in relation to tourism development, city expansion and reclamation activities (Martínantón et al., 2016; Li et al., 2015; Holland et al., 2012). In addition, many researchers have identified the direct impacts of adjacent land use on coastal wetlands, including biogeochemical processes, sediment characteristics and habitat suitability (Karstens et al., 2016; Ou and Yuan, 2015). Therefore, the protection of coastal wetlands is closely linked to changing landscapes in the coastal zone. However, research into the coastal zone started relatively late in China. In recent years, this research has focused on topics such as the change process and ecological effects of landscape patterns, ecosystem services from coastal wetlands and migration patterns of birds in coastal zones (Suo et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2016; Ding et al., 2015; Cao et al., 2009). These studies have been relatively concentrated in the local areas of coastlines, including estuaries, mangroves and mudflats. There has been little research on the landscape pressure and conservation efficacy of the coastal wetlands in relation to land use change in the coastal zone. In recent years, there have been developments in the rapid quantitative assessment of the ecological effects of land use change. These studies focused on land use change, landscape pattern and vegetation dynamics, revealing the conservation efficacy (Rodríguez et al., 2013; Bottrill and Pressey, 2012). Zheng et al. (2012) used land cover change as a single evaluation index and found that in China most of the national wetland reserves were in poor condition. Walker et al. (2001) used the relative risk model and found that the variability in ecological risk stemmed from uncertainty about landscape stress and habitats. Zhang et al. (2014) put forward the quality index and interference index to assess the conservation efficacy of landscapes in the Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve. In addition, the vegetation net primary productivity (NPP), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and landscape indexes are often used in the research of protection effectiveness (Wang et al., 2016; Lu et al., 2015). The ecological quality of habitat patches is usually assessed in connection with the degree of interference, namely the ecological value increases with a decreasing degree of disturbance (Chen et al., 2010). Chen et al. (2014) assessed the impact of human disturbance for the coastal wetlands of Xiamen Bay by developing the human disturbance index. Brown and Vivas (2005) proposed the landscape development index (LDI) to determine the impact of human activities on different areas. This paper analyzed the change in landscape development and pressure in the coastal zone of China, as well as in national nature reserves (NNRs) and national special marine reserves (NSMRs), to assess the conservation efficacy of the coastal zone nearly 25 years after the signing of the Ramsar Convention in 1992.
3. Materials and methods We obtained land use data for 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 (Liu et al., 2014). The data set, with a precision of 1 km × 1 km, was provided by the Data Center for Resources and Environmental Sciences (RESDC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.resdc. cn). We also obtained spatial data on population density and gross domestic product (GDP) with a grid size of 1 km × 1 km in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. These data were based on the Krassovsky ellipsoid, and the projection method was Albers projection. A database of NNRs and NSMRs in the coastal zone of China was established, including the area, type, establishment date and geographic extent. Digital maps of current NNRs and NSMRs in mainland China were also collected and created. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were not included in this analysis, because of the difficulty in obtaining data for protected areas from these regions and discrepancies in the classification of protected areas in these regions. The geographical boundaries and attribute information for NNRs and NSMRs were obtained from the Scientific Survey Report and General Plan (Guo and Cui, 2015). A total of 33 coastal NNRs and 67 NSMRs were used for the evaluation. The conservation efficacy of the coastal wetlands was evaluated by the amount of development and stress in the landscape in the coastal zone using the landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) and landscape stress index (LSItotal). The LDIi, which is calculated through the land cover types (Table 1), was proposed by Brown and Vivas (2005). The formula is as follows:
LDItotal =
∑ %LUi × LDIi
where LDItotal is the landscape development intensity index; %LUi is the ratio of each type of land cover to the total area of the landscape; and LDIi is landscape development intensity coefficient of each type of land cover. Each landuse type in mainland China was reclassified into the land cover types proposed by Brown and Vivas (2005), according to the differences among landuse types, as shown in Table 1. In this study, we also developed a landscape stress index based on LDIi to assess the environmental pressure caused by the dynamic transformation of land use types. The landscape stress index (LSItotal) is calculated as follows: n
∑i = 1
(LDIm)i − (LDIm − 1)i max[(LDIm)i, (LDIm − 1)i]
2. Study areas
LSItotal =
The study area was located along the coastline of mainland China, stretching 20 km on either side of the coastline. It included NNRs and NSMRs designated in the Chinese coastal zone, as shown in Fig. 1. The coastline of mainland China, from the estuary of the Yalu River south to the estuary of the Beilun River, is the interface between the Pacific and Eurasia and runs from northeast to southwest with a total length of about 18,000 km (Wang and Li, 2013). Data in Taiwan were missing because of the difficulty of obtaining these data.
where (LDIm)i is the landscape development intensity coefficient of landscape patch i in the current period, (LDIm-1)i is the landscape development intensity coefficient of landscape patch i in the last period, and n is the overall number of landscape patches in the evaluated region. The correlation of LDItotal with population density and GDP in the coastal zone of China was analyzed using OriginPro 9.0 (OriginLab, the United States) software. 71
n
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Fig. 1. Location map of the study area.
4. Results
intensity was greater further from the Chinese coast. The LDItotal within 10 and 20 km of the Chinese coast showed high consistency in different periods. However, the LDItotal continued to increase from 1990 to 2015, and the difference in LDItotal steadily narrowed. This indicates that the development intensity close to the shoreline in China increased constantly, and it was becoming increasingly similar to the surrounding area. In short, the coastline in China has been subject to continuous human activity, with increased development and use of coastal areas in
4.1. Appropriate area of influence In different periods, the landscape development intensity in different parts of the coastline varied, as shown in Fig. 2. The LDItotal within 10 and 20 km of the Chinese coastline was significantly higher than that within 5 km. The results showed that landscape development
Table 1 Landscape development intensity coefficient of different land cover types. Land cover types
Landuse types in the coastal zone of China
LDIi
Natural system Natural open water Pine plantation Recreational/open space– low-intensity Improved pasture– low-intensity (with livestock) Artificial wetlands Agriculture – high intensity Industrial Multi-family residential (low rise) Central business district (average 2 stories)
Woodland, tideland, beach, marshlands Lake, canals, ocean Shrubwood, sparse woodland, other woodlands Sand, gobi, saline and alkaline land, bare land Grassland Reservoir, pond Cultivated land Other construction land Rural residential land Urban land
1 1 1.58 1.83 3.41 4.37 7 8.32 8.66 9.42
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Table 2 The landscape stress index (LSItotal) of coastal zone in different periods between 1990 and 2015. Years
LSItotal
Standard deviation (SD)
1990–1995 1995–2000 2000–2005 2005–2010 2010–2015
0.00875 0.00941 0.01120 0.00293 0.00693
0.4000 0.3515 0.1060 0.0611 0.0830
LDItotal before 2005 was significantly faster than that after 2005. The results also indicate that the LSItotal in 1990–2005 was much higher than that in other periods, as shown in Table 2. The change in landscape pattern was more obvious in certain areas of the coastal zone before 2000, including improvement and deterioration. The LSItotal in coastal zone activity increased in recent years after an initial decline, but the extent of variation in LSItotal reduced (Table 2). The improvement in landscape stress caused by human activities in the coastal zone accelerated the increase in the development intensity of the landscape. The LDItotal of the coastline in northern China was higher than that in southern China in all periods.
Fig. 2. The landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) of coastal zone in different ranges.
recent years. The shoreline has also been subject to landscape change caused by this human activity.
4.3. Landscape development intensity and stress of the coastal zone in different regions
4.2. Landscape development intensity and stress of the coastal zone in different periods
The provinces located north of the Qiantang River had a higher LDItotal in the coastal zone with values greater than 5.2, significantly higher than those in the south, which were under 4.7 (Fig. 4). This was mainly because of the high-intensity development of the agricultural landscape in the north of the Qiantang River over the study period.
The results showed that the LDItotal within 20 km of the Chinese coast increased from 4.78 to 5.01 between 1990 and 2015 (Figs. 2 and 3). The LDItotal of the Chinese coastline was already very high in 1990, with a high intensity of human disturbance. However, the growth of
Fig. 3. The change of landscape development intensity coefficient (LDIi) pattern of coastal zone in different periods between 1990 and 2015. 73
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at very lowly before 1990 but rapidly since 2005, especially the expansion of NSMRs. 4.5. The conservation efficacy of coastal NNRs and NSMRs When considering coastal NNRs and NSMRs, the development intensity of the landscape in the protected areas was lower than that in the coastal zone (area within 20 km of coastline), as shown in Fig. 7. The LDItotal in coastal NNRs and NSMRs was significantly below the LDItotal in the coastal zone with a value of 4.80, although it has increased in 1990–2015. The LDItotal in all coastal NNRs was higher than that in NSMRs in all periods. From 1990 to 2015, the LDItotal in coastal NNRs maintained rapid growth, and the difference in LDItotal between the coastal zone and coastal NNRs became smaller than before 2010. The results indicate that the development intensity of the landscape was enhanced over a long period because there was no effective control of human activities in coastal NNRs. The LDItotal in NSMRs decreased to its minimum in 2000 and then increased. The establishment of NSMRs began in 2005, but the change of LDItotal in NSMRs has been very small in the last 10 years. This suggests that coastal wetlands have been effectively protected to some degree by the establishment of coastal NNRs and NSMRs.
Fig. 4. The landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) of coastal zone of different provinces in different periods between 1990 and 2015.
Among the 11 provinces in China, the LDItotal in the coastal zone could be divided into four classes, with 5.60–6.45 representing the most severe landscape development, followed by 5.25–5.52, 4.41–4.69, and 3.51–4.11. The coastal zone in Hebei had the highest level of landscape development intensity in most periods, especially in 2000–2015. The coastal zone in Guangxi and Hainan had the lowest LDItotal at different times. However, the change of LDItotal of the coastal zone in different provinces was highly significantly linked with social progress, and the LDItotal maintained a sustained upward trend. The LSItotal of most provinces in the coastal zone was a positive number, and coastal wetlands continued to face stress from landscape changes (Fig. 5). Nonetheless, the LSItotal of each province in the coastal zone irregularly varied over time. The LSItotal of Liaoning, Tianjin and Shanghai was highest in 1990–1995, with values of 2.40, 6.16 and 20.41, respectively. In 1995–2000, the LSItotal was the highest in Hebei, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, with values of 3.42, 1.10, 6.26 and 2.38, respectively. Shandong, Zhejiang and Fujian had the highest LSItotal in 2000–2005, with values of 2.99, 1.75 and 1.22, respectively. The LSItotal of Jiangsu was the highest in 2010–2015, reaching 2.10. In terms of the link between human interference and the landscape development intensity, the coastline and coastal wetlands appeared to face a greater threat from humans in the provinces along the Bohai Sea and the Huanghai Sea. These coastlines have experienced impacts in terms of reclaimed landscapes for many years.
4.6. The impact of population density and GDP on landscape development intensity There was a significant positive correlation between the landscape development intensity index and population density and GDP in the coastal zone of China (Fig. 8). The correlation coefficients (R2) of LDItotal with population density and GDP were 0.794 and 0.657, respectively. Since 1995, the intensity of landscape development increased with increasing population density and GDP growth in the coastal zone, leading to dramatic land use change. Population density had a greater impact than GDP on the LDItotal, contributing more to landscape pressure. However, higher LDItotal did not exist in the littoral zone area with a higher density of population and higher GDP in different provinces, as shown in Figs. 4 and 9. There was generally a higher landscape development intensity in the coastal zone of northern China, although the population density and GDP in these provinces were lower than those of some southern provinces with lower LDItotal. 5. Discussion and conclusion
4.4. Expansion of protected areas in the coastal zone
The intensity of human disturbance varied across the different distance zones on either side of the coastline, because of the nature of geographical conditions. These differences were mainly reflected in the decreasing landscape development intensity closer to the coastline in China. However, the coastlines have come under increased strain with continued exploitation of the coastal regions in China, and the landscape development intensity in the area closer to the coastline gradually became closer to that further away from the coastline. The landscape development indexes were highly consistent during the same period from 1990 to 2015 between 10 and 20 km from the Chinese coastline. Therefore, the scope of the study area in this paper was limited to within 20 km of the coastline. The coastal zone has maintained a high intensity of landscape development in China since 1990 because of the long-term negative effect of human activity. Overall, the landscape development intensity has increased over the 25 year period. The growth rate of landscape development intensity slowed in 2005–2010; however, the growth rate rebounded noticeably in 2010–2015, which might be related to the policy of sea reclamation in provinces such as Jiangsu (Duan et al., 2016; Suo and Zhang, 2015). The changing trend in landscape development was also apparent in the landscape development stress, with the LSItotal before 2005 significantly higher than that after 2005. Moreover, the landscape stress in coastal zone increased rapidly before 2005, and
Before 2005, there was only one type of protected area in the coastal zone of China, namely coastal NNRs. The total amount and area of coastal NNRs were very low until 1990, with only 10 reserves with an area of 1752.45 km2. While the total amount of coastal NNRs and NSMRs has increased from 1985 to 2017, we found that the rate of increase of coastal NNRs has slowed and that of NSMRs has increased. The total amount of NSMRs surpassed that of coastal NNRs in 2012 (Fig. 6a). We calculated the area of reserves established annually from 1980, using the dates of establishment listed for each coastal NNR and NSMR in China (Fig. 6b). The total area of coastal NNRs and NSMRs under any legal protection increased from 0 to 24,987 km2, a notable achievement. Although the rate of increase in area of NSMRs was higher than that of coastal NNRs, the total area of coastal NNRs was still greater than that of NSMRs. Our analysis also revealed that 16.80% of the coastline in China was protected by coastal NNRs and NSMRs in 2017 (Table 3). This proportion had increased by 14.76% from 1990 to 2017. The Chinese government has achieved a great deal in protecting coastal wetlands, by establishing coastal NNRs and NSMRs. However, there is an extreme spatial bias in the coastal zone, as it focused on the coastline in the north of China. We found that the protection of the coastline increased 74
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Fig. 5. The landscape stress index (LSItotal) of coastal zone of different provinces in different periods between 1990 and 2015.
(Sun et al., 2015). Since the Notice of the State Council on Several Issues Concerning the Further Strengthening of Marine Administration was launched by the Chinese government in 2004, a range of measures including strictly controlling sea reclamation and approving marine development activities in accordance to law were highlighted in marine management to reduce landscape development stress. The main stressors of landscape development in the coastal zone also changed in recent years, with agricultural reclamation gradually evolving into the expansion of urban and industrial land (Zhao et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2009). There were clear differences in the landscape development intensity and stress among different coastal areas. Based on different landscape development intensity, the coastal zone was divided into two parts, split by the Qiantang River. The landscape development intensity in the north was higher over a much larger area than in the south. The difference in types of coastal wetlands and the history of civilization in China may explain these results. The coastal plain to the north of the
reached its highest point in 2000–2005, which led to the rapid increase of landscape development intensity. The findings supported similar research on coastal zones that found landscape change had an apparent periodic characteristic with the change more significant in 2000–2005 than in 2005–2010 (Lei et al., 2017). However, the intensity of landscape stress had a strong positive influence on the change of LDItotal. Moreover, urbanization, industrialization and sea reclamation had already become the main sources of landscape stress in the coastal wetlands of mainland China (Lei et al., 2017). Significant changes in land use generally decreased with the rapid development of Chinese society, which resulted in the gradual decrease areas showing severe landscape dynamic changes in the coastal zones. There were fewer sites with high-intensity landscape development stress in the coastal zone of China after 2005 than before. This had a direct relationship with the implementation of stricter nature conservation systems and control of natural resources in China since 2000 75
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Fig. 6. The growth of NNRs and NSMRs in number and area.
gaps in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership Flyway Network, and many critical wetlands in demand by waterbirds were not included in individual protected areas (Xia et al., 2017). Protected areas were widely considered as one available strategy for protecting biodiversity, which is threatened by habitat fragmentation, and preventing wildlife extinction (Evans, 2012). Protected areas have been rapidly established and expanded in many countries, including China, with various types of protected areas (Zhang et al., 2017; Guo and Cui, 2015; Jenkins and Joppa, 2009). To strengthen the conservation of coastal wetlands, large numbers of coastal NNRs and NSMRs have been established since 1980, particularly after 1990. NSMRs first appeared in 2005, and provided a similar functionality to coastal NNRs. Coastal wetlands provide humans with many irreplaceable ecological services, but they are under pressure from both sea level rise and disturbance by human activities (Ivajnsic and Kaligaric, 2014). Therefore, the conservation of the coastal zone has received increasing attention globally, and the construction of protected areas for coastal wetlands is urgently required. Global attention has contributed to the rapid growth of marine protected areas in the coastal areas of China, with a significant increase in the number of NSMRs and coastal NNRs. Moreover, it is clear that these protected areas are mostly in the northern part of the Chinese coastline because of the bias in the distribution of coastal wetlands and migratory waterbirds (Lei et al., 2017; Ma et al., 2015). These reserves provide key sites with in situ conservation to salvage coastal wetlands in the context of serious human interference along the coastline in China over many years. Coastal wetlands in the coastal zone of China are critical to the survival of many migratory waterbirds using the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, by providing staging and over-wintering habitats for more than 200 migratory species (Xia et al., 2017). Over 70% of the globally threatened waterbird species on this flyway depend on China's coastal wetlands (Bai et al., 2015; Mackinnon et al., 2012). Where natural wetland habitat is relatively small, in situ conservation and management of coastal wetlands have become important to the safety of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. It cannot be denied that coastal NNRs and NSMRs have played an increasingly important role in the conservation of biodiversity and natural ecosystems in mainland China. Nevertheless, coastal wetlands are limited to a narrow geographical space along the coastal zone, which has to meet not only the needs of the construction of protected areas, but also the demand for production and living spaces for human beings. Therefore, the quantity of coastal protected areas has increased quickly in recent years, but the growth in area was limited. In addition, the increase in numbers was influenced mainly by the expansion of NSMRs in the last 10 years, most likely because the exploitation of NNRs is more strictly controlled than NSMRs. Understanding how to reach the balance between environmental conservation and economic development is a topic still being explored by many local governments in China.
Table 3 Change in the proportion of protected coastline in China between 1990 and 2017. Years
Coastal NNRs (%)
NSMRs (%)
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2017
2.04 4.26 8.69 9.09 10.40 10.57 10.57
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.36 1.07 4.82 6.23
Fig. 7. Comparison of landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) of coastal NNRs, NSMRs and coastal zone in different periods between 1990 and 2015.
Qiantang River has had more intense human activity with a longer duration because it was easier to develop and use than the rocky coast to the south (Cui et al., 2016; Xu and Zhang, 2007). Furthermore, there are more coastal wetlands in the northern part of the Chinese coastline than the southern part, and the development of human often depends on wetlands (Ma et al., 2015; Cui, 2012). From the point of view of landscape development strength and stress, the coastal zone of the Huanghai Sea and the Bohai Sea were the focus for coastal wetland conservation in mainland China. These areas are the main distribution area of the typical mudflat wetlands in mainland China, and provide a unique habitat for many species of waterbirds (Lei et al., 2017; Ma et al., 2015). Stricter protection measures should be adopted to restrict or prevent land development involving wetlands, especially in the coastal areas of Hebei and Jiangsu. These areas are key conservation 76
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Fig. 8. Correlation of landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) with population density and GDP in coastal zone of China.
and population density does not have to lead to an increase in the intensity of landscape development. We could decrease the disturbance stress from human activities by optimizing the development environment and layout, and emphasizing environmental protection to promote the conservation efficacy of the coastal wetlands. Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Acknowledgements This research has been supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFC0506205). We thank Leonie Seabrook, PhD, and Alex Boon, PhD, from LiwenBianji, Edanz Group China (www. liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript. Fig. 9. Relationship of landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) with population density and GDP of coastal zone of each province in China in 2015.
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The landscape development intensity in coastal NNRs and NSMRs was generally lower than the total for the coastal zones in China, because there were less human disturbance factors in these protected areas. However, the landscape development intensity in coastal NNRs was higher than that in NSMRs, which could be because of the larger areas of farmland, fish ponds and settlements located in coastal NNRs than NSMRs (Xu et al., 2015; Zheng et al., 2012). The landscape development intensity in coastal NNRs has continued to increase, but the growth rate declined dramatically, implying that the protected areas were successful in the conservation of wetlands despite long-term human activity. Hence, the degeneration of coastal wetlands has been restrained to some degree, but the condition of natural habitat has not improved in these protected areas. In the future, more measures and actions for wetland restoration should be carried out in the conservation of coastal wetlands, particularly in the existing protected areas. In conclusion, the landscape development intensity as a whole has grown stronger in the coastal zone of China. This could have been because of higher population density and GDP in the coastal zone. Therefore, the conservation efficacy of the coastal zone as a whole was greatly affected by the growth of population density and GDP, and the landscape development intensity continued to increase between 1990 and 2015. However, higher population density or GDP did not mean stronger landscape development intensity in different provinces at the same time, and the rapid growth of GDP did not cause a corresponding rapid increase in landscape development intensity, especially between 2005 and 2015. This suggests that the rapid expansion of the economy 77
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The conservation efficacy of coastal wetlands in China based on landscape development and stress
T
Ziliang Guoa,b, Manyin Zhanga,b,∗ a b
Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China National Ecosystem Research Station of Hengshui Wetland, Hengshui, 053000, China
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Conservation efficacy Coastal zone Wetlands China Landscape
The coastal zone of China contains extensive coastal wetlands but it is also one of the most densely populated areas. Rapid changes of land use pattern associated with socio-economic development in the coastal zone have had tremendous impacts on the health of coastal wetlands and their provision of ecological services. In this study, we used a landscape development intensity index and landscape stress index to evaluate the conservation efficacy of the coastal zone and coastal protected areas along the coastline of China from 1990 to 2015. We then analyzed the impact of population density and gross domestic product (GDP) on landscape development intensity. The results showed that landscape development intensity in coastal zone increased over the 25 year period, but the growth rate of landscape development intensity and landscape stress slowed between 2005 and 2015. Higher levels of landscape development intensity were widespread in the coastal zone of northern China compared with southern China, and the coastal zones of the Huanghai Sea and the Bohai Sea were the focus of coastal wetlands conservation in mainland China. A number of coastal protected areas, including 33 coastal national nature reserves and 67 national special marine reserves, have been established in mainland China, protecting 16.80% of the coastline. Coastal wetlands have been effectively protected to some extent by building these protected areas, with results showing lower landscape development intensity. The conservation efficacy of coastal wetlands as a whole was affected by population expansion and GDP, but the effects were not necessarily all negative. A higher population density or GDP did not necessarily lead to stronger landscape development intensity in local areas.
1. Introduction
and economic development. Rapid land use change caused mainly by human activities in the coastal zone, such as urbanization, reclamation and dredging projects, has become one of the most important causes of coastal wetlands degradation (Fang et al., 2015; Pascual-Aguilar et al., 2015; Schleupner, 2008). Most major cities are found along the coastline worldwide, and more than half of the population living in cities live within 100 km of the coast (Barragán and Andrés, 2015; Hu and Yao, 2004). Therefore, many areas are facing a high intensity of human disturbance with rapid changes in land use and landscape along the world's coastlines (Cloern et al., 2015; Alves et al., 2013). Human interference and development have become one of the main reasons for habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss and the degradation of environmental quality (Betts et al., 2017; Sala et al., 2000). Moreover, the coastal zone is vulnerable to many aspects of landscape pressure and climate change (Osland et al., 2016; Doody, 2013). Changes in landscape pattern and their ecological effect in the
Wetlands provide human beings with many irreplaceable ecosystem services and play an important role in regulating climate, improving water quality and maintaining biodiversity (Cui, 2004 & 2012; Costanza et al., 1997). Hence, wetlands are an important ecological landscape, and together with forest and oceans are known as the most important ecosystem in the world (Yu et al., 2015). Coastal wetlands are located in the coastal zone and link terrestrial and marine ecosystems, forming a special type of wetland. Coastal zones are also ecotones with strong biogeochemical gradients, unique sediment characteristics and rich biodiversity because of the interactions of land and sea (Yang et al., 2017; Steinmuller et al., 2016; Dijk et al., 2015). Furthermore, the coastal zones are strongly linked to human survival and development because of the advantages of natural resources and water environment (Barragán and Andrés, 2015). As a result, coastal zones have developed into the most populated areas in the world, with rapid social
∗
Corresponding author. Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry behind Summer Palace, Beijing, China. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Z. Guo), [email protected] (M. Zhang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2019.03.018 Received 26 November 2018; Received in revised form 8 March 2019; Accepted 14 March 2019 0964-5691/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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China has a large marine area and a long coastline. The coastal zone contains more than 40% of the total population in China and is the most economically developed area in the country. With the rapid development of the economy, the demand for construction land has increased rapidly. The coastal wetland ecosystem provides abundant ecological goods and services for human society (Camacho-Valdez et al., 2014). In addition, the coastal zone in China located on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership Flyway Network (Xia et al., 2017), provides suitable habitat for large numbers of migratory waterfowl including shorebirds, Anatidae and Gruidae, as well as various marine organisms including Sousa chinensis, Dugong dugon and Phoca largha (Chen, 2006).
coastal zone have become a key research objective for multiple disciplines in relation to the increasing development intensity and population density of the coastal zone (Suo et al., 2016). Many scientific investigators have carried out research into the impacts of changes in landscape patterns in the coastal zone on material recycling (Mu et al., 2017), the hydrological processes of estuaries (Rothenberger et al., 2009) and biodiversity in wetlands (Fraixedas et al., 2015). Recent research has identified that coastal wetlands worldwide have suffered severe degradation under the combined stress of intensified human activities and global change (Luo et al., 2015). The response of processes to changes in landscape patterns in coastal zones has also been analyzed in many studies in relation to tourism development, city expansion and reclamation activities (Martínantón et al., 2016; Li et al., 2015; Holland et al., 2012). In addition, many researchers have identified the direct impacts of adjacent land use on coastal wetlands, including biogeochemical processes, sediment characteristics and habitat suitability (Karstens et al., 2016; Ou and Yuan, 2015). Therefore, the protection of coastal wetlands is closely linked to changing landscapes in the coastal zone. However, research into the coastal zone started relatively late in China. In recent years, this research has focused on topics such as the change process and ecological effects of landscape patterns, ecosystem services from coastal wetlands and migration patterns of birds in coastal zones (Suo et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2016; Ding et al., 2015; Cao et al., 2009). These studies have been relatively concentrated in the local areas of coastlines, including estuaries, mangroves and mudflats. There has been little research on the landscape pressure and conservation efficacy of the coastal wetlands in relation to land use change in the coastal zone. In recent years, there have been developments in the rapid quantitative assessment of the ecological effects of land use change. These studies focused on land use change, landscape pattern and vegetation dynamics, revealing the conservation efficacy (Rodríguez et al., 2013; Bottrill and Pressey, 2012). Zheng et al. (2012) used land cover change as a single evaluation index and found that in China most of the national wetland reserves were in poor condition. Walker et al. (2001) used the relative risk model and found that the variability in ecological risk stemmed from uncertainty about landscape stress and habitats. Zhang et al. (2014) put forward the quality index and interference index to assess the conservation efficacy of landscapes in the Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve. In addition, the vegetation net primary productivity (NPP), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and landscape indexes are often used in the research of protection effectiveness (Wang et al., 2016; Lu et al., 2015). The ecological quality of habitat patches is usually assessed in connection with the degree of interference, namely the ecological value increases with a decreasing degree of disturbance (Chen et al., 2010). Chen et al. (2014) assessed the impact of human disturbance for the coastal wetlands of Xiamen Bay by developing the human disturbance index. Brown and Vivas (2005) proposed the landscape development index (LDI) to determine the impact of human activities on different areas. This paper analyzed the change in landscape development and pressure in the coastal zone of China, as well as in national nature reserves (NNRs) and national special marine reserves (NSMRs), to assess the conservation efficacy of the coastal zone nearly 25 years after the signing of the Ramsar Convention in 1992.
3. Materials and methods We obtained land use data for 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 (Liu et al., 2014). The data set, with a precision of 1 km × 1 km, was provided by the Data Center for Resources and Environmental Sciences (RESDC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.resdc. cn). We also obtained spatial data on population density and gross domestic product (GDP) with a grid size of 1 km × 1 km in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. These data were based on the Krassovsky ellipsoid, and the projection method was Albers projection. A database of NNRs and NSMRs in the coastal zone of China was established, including the area, type, establishment date and geographic extent. Digital maps of current NNRs and NSMRs in mainland China were also collected and created. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were not included in this analysis, because of the difficulty in obtaining data for protected areas from these regions and discrepancies in the classification of protected areas in these regions. The geographical boundaries and attribute information for NNRs and NSMRs were obtained from the Scientific Survey Report and General Plan (Guo and Cui, 2015). A total of 33 coastal NNRs and 67 NSMRs were used for the evaluation. The conservation efficacy of the coastal wetlands was evaluated by the amount of development and stress in the landscape in the coastal zone using the landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) and landscape stress index (LSItotal). The LDIi, which is calculated through the land cover types (Table 1), was proposed by Brown and Vivas (2005). The formula is as follows:
LDItotal =
∑ %LUi × LDIi
where LDItotal is the landscape development intensity index; %LUi is the ratio of each type of land cover to the total area of the landscape; and LDIi is landscape development intensity coefficient of each type of land cover. Each landuse type in mainland China was reclassified into the land cover types proposed by Brown and Vivas (2005), according to the differences among landuse types, as shown in Table 1. In this study, we also developed a landscape stress index based on LDIi to assess the environmental pressure caused by the dynamic transformation of land use types. The landscape stress index (LSItotal) is calculated as follows: n
∑i = 1
(LDIm)i − (LDIm − 1)i max[(LDIm)i, (LDIm − 1)i]
2. Study areas
LSItotal =
The study area was located along the coastline of mainland China, stretching 20 km on either side of the coastline. It included NNRs and NSMRs designated in the Chinese coastal zone, as shown in Fig. 1. The coastline of mainland China, from the estuary of the Yalu River south to the estuary of the Beilun River, is the interface between the Pacific and Eurasia and runs from northeast to southwest with a total length of about 18,000 km (Wang and Li, 2013). Data in Taiwan were missing because of the difficulty of obtaining these data.
where (LDIm)i is the landscape development intensity coefficient of landscape patch i in the current period, (LDIm-1)i is the landscape development intensity coefficient of landscape patch i in the last period, and n is the overall number of landscape patches in the evaluated region. The correlation of LDItotal with population density and GDP in the coastal zone of China was analyzed using OriginPro 9.0 (OriginLab, the United States) software. 71
n
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Fig. 1. Location map of the study area.
4. Results
intensity was greater further from the Chinese coast. The LDItotal within 10 and 20 km of the Chinese coast showed high consistency in different periods. However, the LDItotal continued to increase from 1990 to 2015, and the difference in LDItotal steadily narrowed. This indicates that the development intensity close to the shoreline in China increased constantly, and it was becoming increasingly similar to the surrounding area. In short, the coastline in China has been subject to continuous human activity, with increased development and use of coastal areas in
4.1. Appropriate area of influence In different periods, the landscape development intensity in different parts of the coastline varied, as shown in Fig. 2. The LDItotal within 10 and 20 km of the Chinese coastline was significantly higher than that within 5 km. The results showed that landscape development
Table 1 Landscape development intensity coefficient of different land cover types. Land cover types
Landuse types in the coastal zone of China
LDIi
Natural system Natural open water Pine plantation Recreational/open space– low-intensity Improved pasture– low-intensity (with livestock) Artificial wetlands Agriculture – high intensity Industrial Multi-family residential (low rise) Central business district (average 2 stories)
Woodland, tideland, beach, marshlands Lake, canals, ocean Shrubwood, sparse woodland, other woodlands Sand, gobi, saline and alkaline land, bare land Grassland Reservoir, pond Cultivated land Other construction land Rural residential land Urban land
1 1 1.58 1.83 3.41 4.37 7 8.32 8.66 9.42
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Table 2 The landscape stress index (LSItotal) of coastal zone in different periods between 1990 and 2015. Years
LSItotal
Standard deviation (SD)
1990–1995 1995–2000 2000–2005 2005–2010 2010–2015
0.00875 0.00941 0.01120 0.00293 0.00693
0.4000 0.3515 0.1060 0.0611 0.0830
LDItotal before 2005 was significantly faster than that after 2005. The results also indicate that the LSItotal in 1990–2005 was much higher than that in other periods, as shown in Table 2. The change in landscape pattern was more obvious in certain areas of the coastal zone before 2000, including improvement and deterioration. The LSItotal in coastal zone activity increased in recent years after an initial decline, but the extent of variation in LSItotal reduced (Table 2). The improvement in landscape stress caused by human activities in the coastal zone accelerated the increase in the development intensity of the landscape. The LDItotal of the coastline in northern China was higher than that in southern China in all periods.
Fig. 2. The landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) of coastal zone in different ranges.
recent years. The shoreline has also been subject to landscape change caused by this human activity.
4.3. Landscape development intensity and stress of the coastal zone in different regions
4.2. Landscape development intensity and stress of the coastal zone in different periods
The provinces located north of the Qiantang River had a higher LDItotal in the coastal zone with values greater than 5.2, significantly higher than those in the south, which were under 4.7 (Fig. 4). This was mainly because of the high-intensity development of the agricultural landscape in the north of the Qiantang River over the study period.
The results showed that the LDItotal within 20 km of the Chinese coast increased from 4.78 to 5.01 between 1990 and 2015 (Figs. 2 and 3). The LDItotal of the Chinese coastline was already very high in 1990, with a high intensity of human disturbance. However, the growth of
Fig. 3. The change of landscape development intensity coefficient (LDIi) pattern of coastal zone in different periods between 1990 and 2015. 73
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at very lowly before 1990 but rapidly since 2005, especially the expansion of NSMRs. 4.5. The conservation efficacy of coastal NNRs and NSMRs When considering coastal NNRs and NSMRs, the development intensity of the landscape in the protected areas was lower than that in the coastal zone (area within 20 km of coastline), as shown in Fig. 7. The LDItotal in coastal NNRs and NSMRs was significantly below the LDItotal in the coastal zone with a value of 4.80, although it has increased in 1990–2015. The LDItotal in all coastal NNRs was higher than that in NSMRs in all periods. From 1990 to 2015, the LDItotal in coastal NNRs maintained rapid growth, and the difference in LDItotal between the coastal zone and coastal NNRs became smaller than before 2010. The results indicate that the development intensity of the landscape was enhanced over a long period because there was no effective control of human activities in coastal NNRs. The LDItotal in NSMRs decreased to its minimum in 2000 and then increased. The establishment of NSMRs began in 2005, but the change of LDItotal in NSMRs has been very small in the last 10 years. This suggests that coastal wetlands have been effectively protected to some degree by the establishment of coastal NNRs and NSMRs.
Fig. 4. The landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) of coastal zone of different provinces in different periods between 1990 and 2015.
Among the 11 provinces in China, the LDItotal in the coastal zone could be divided into four classes, with 5.60–6.45 representing the most severe landscape development, followed by 5.25–5.52, 4.41–4.69, and 3.51–4.11. The coastal zone in Hebei had the highest level of landscape development intensity in most periods, especially in 2000–2015. The coastal zone in Guangxi and Hainan had the lowest LDItotal at different times. However, the change of LDItotal of the coastal zone in different provinces was highly significantly linked with social progress, and the LDItotal maintained a sustained upward trend. The LSItotal of most provinces in the coastal zone was a positive number, and coastal wetlands continued to face stress from landscape changes (Fig. 5). Nonetheless, the LSItotal of each province in the coastal zone irregularly varied over time. The LSItotal of Liaoning, Tianjin and Shanghai was highest in 1990–1995, with values of 2.40, 6.16 and 20.41, respectively. In 1995–2000, the LSItotal was the highest in Hebei, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, with values of 3.42, 1.10, 6.26 and 2.38, respectively. Shandong, Zhejiang and Fujian had the highest LSItotal in 2000–2005, with values of 2.99, 1.75 and 1.22, respectively. The LSItotal of Jiangsu was the highest in 2010–2015, reaching 2.10. In terms of the link between human interference and the landscape development intensity, the coastline and coastal wetlands appeared to face a greater threat from humans in the provinces along the Bohai Sea and the Huanghai Sea. These coastlines have experienced impacts in terms of reclaimed landscapes for many years.
4.6. The impact of population density and GDP on landscape development intensity There was a significant positive correlation between the landscape development intensity index and population density and GDP in the coastal zone of China (Fig. 8). The correlation coefficients (R2) of LDItotal with population density and GDP were 0.794 and 0.657, respectively. Since 1995, the intensity of landscape development increased with increasing population density and GDP growth in the coastal zone, leading to dramatic land use change. Population density had a greater impact than GDP on the LDItotal, contributing more to landscape pressure. However, higher LDItotal did not exist in the littoral zone area with a higher density of population and higher GDP in different provinces, as shown in Figs. 4 and 9. There was generally a higher landscape development intensity in the coastal zone of northern China, although the population density and GDP in these provinces were lower than those of some southern provinces with lower LDItotal. 5. Discussion and conclusion
4.4. Expansion of protected areas in the coastal zone
The intensity of human disturbance varied across the different distance zones on either side of the coastline, because of the nature of geographical conditions. These differences were mainly reflected in the decreasing landscape development intensity closer to the coastline in China. However, the coastlines have come under increased strain with continued exploitation of the coastal regions in China, and the landscape development intensity in the area closer to the coastline gradually became closer to that further away from the coastline. The landscape development indexes were highly consistent during the same period from 1990 to 2015 between 10 and 20 km from the Chinese coastline. Therefore, the scope of the study area in this paper was limited to within 20 km of the coastline. The coastal zone has maintained a high intensity of landscape development in China since 1990 because of the long-term negative effect of human activity. Overall, the landscape development intensity has increased over the 25 year period. The growth rate of landscape development intensity slowed in 2005–2010; however, the growth rate rebounded noticeably in 2010–2015, which might be related to the policy of sea reclamation in provinces such as Jiangsu (Duan et al., 2016; Suo and Zhang, 2015). The changing trend in landscape development was also apparent in the landscape development stress, with the LSItotal before 2005 significantly higher than that after 2005. Moreover, the landscape stress in coastal zone increased rapidly before 2005, and
Before 2005, there was only one type of protected area in the coastal zone of China, namely coastal NNRs. The total amount and area of coastal NNRs were very low until 1990, with only 10 reserves with an area of 1752.45 km2. While the total amount of coastal NNRs and NSMRs has increased from 1985 to 2017, we found that the rate of increase of coastal NNRs has slowed and that of NSMRs has increased. The total amount of NSMRs surpassed that of coastal NNRs in 2012 (Fig. 6a). We calculated the area of reserves established annually from 1980, using the dates of establishment listed for each coastal NNR and NSMR in China (Fig. 6b). The total area of coastal NNRs and NSMRs under any legal protection increased from 0 to 24,987 km2, a notable achievement. Although the rate of increase in area of NSMRs was higher than that of coastal NNRs, the total area of coastal NNRs was still greater than that of NSMRs. Our analysis also revealed that 16.80% of the coastline in China was protected by coastal NNRs and NSMRs in 2017 (Table 3). This proportion had increased by 14.76% from 1990 to 2017. The Chinese government has achieved a great deal in protecting coastal wetlands, by establishing coastal NNRs and NSMRs. However, there is an extreme spatial bias in the coastal zone, as it focused on the coastline in the north of China. We found that the protection of the coastline increased 74
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Fig. 5. The landscape stress index (LSItotal) of coastal zone of different provinces in different periods between 1990 and 2015.
(Sun et al., 2015). Since the Notice of the State Council on Several Issues Concerning the Further Strengthening of Marine Administration was launched by the Chinese government in 2004, a range of measures including strictly controlling sea reclamation and approving marine development activities in accordance to law were highlighted in marine management to reduce landscape development stress. The main stressors of landscape development in the coastal zone also changed in recent years, with agricultural reclamation gradually evolving into the expansion of urban and industrial land (Zhao et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2009). There were clear differences in the landscape development intensity and stress among different coastal areas. Based on different landscape development intensity, the coastal zone was divided into two parts, split by the Qiantang River. The landscape development intensity in the north was higher over a much larger area than in the south. The difference in types of coastal wetlands and the history of civilization in China may explain these results. The coastal plain to the north of the
reached its highest point in 2000–2005, which led to the rapid increase of landscape development intensity. The findings supported similar research on coastal zones that found landscape change had an apparent periodic characteristic with the change more significant in 2000–2005 than in 2005–2010 (Lei et al., 2017). However, the intensity of landscape stress had a strong positive influence on the change of LDItotal. Moreover, urbanization, industrialization and sea reclamation had already become the main sources of landscape stress in the coastal wetlands of mainland China (Lei et al., 2017). Significant changes in land use generally decreased with the rapid development of Chinese society, which resulted in the gradual decrease areas showing severe landscape dynamic changes in the coastal zones. There were fewer sites with high-intensity landscape development stress in the coastal zone of China after 2005 than before. This had a direct relationship with the implementation of stricter nature conservation systems and control of natural resources in China since 2000 75
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Fig. 6. The growth of NNRs and NSMRs in number and area.
gaps in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership Flyway Network, and many critical wetlands in demand by waterbirds were not included in individual protected areas (Xia et al., 2017). Protected areas were widely considered as one available strategy for protecting biodiversity, which is threatened by habitat fragmentation, and preventing wildlife extinction (Evans, 2012). Protected areas have been rapidly established and expanded in many countries, including China, with various types of protected areas (Zhang et al., 2017; Guo and Cui, 2015; Jenkins and Joppa, 2009). To strengthen the conservation of coastal wetlands, large numbers of coastal NNRs and NSMRs have been established since 1980, particularly after 1990. NSMRs first appeared in 2005, and provided a similar functionality to coastal NNRs. Coastal wetlands provide humans with many irreplaceable ecological services, but they are under pressure from both sea level rise and disturbance by human activities (Ivajnsic and Kaligaric, 2014). Therefore, the conservation of the coastal zone has received increasing attention globally, and the construction of protected areas for coastal wetlands is urgently required. Global attention has contributed to the rapid growth of marine protected areas in the coastal areas of China, with a significant increase in the number of NSMRs and coastal NNRs. Moreover, it is clear that these protected areas are mostly in the northern part of the Chinese coastline because of the bias in the distribution of coastal wetlands and migratory waterbirds (Lei et al., 2017; Ma et al., 2015). These reserves provide key sites with in situ conservation to salvage coastal wetlands in the context of serious human interference along the coastline in China over many years. Coastal wetlands in the coastal zone of China are critical to the survival of many migratory waterbirds using the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, by providing staging and over-wintering habitats for more than 200 migratory species (Xia et al., 2017). Over 70% of the globally threatened waterbird species on this flyway depend on China's coastal wetlands (Bai et al., 2015; Mackinnon et al., 2012). Where natural wetland habitat is relatively small, in situ conservation and management of coastal wetlands have become important to the safety of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. It cannot be denied that coastal NNRs and NSMRs have played an increasingly important role in the conservation of biodiversity and natural ecosystems in mainland China. Nevertheless, coastal wetlands are limited to a narrow geographical space along the coastal zone, which has to meet not only the needs of the construction of protected areas, but also the demand for production and living spaces for human beings. Therefore, the quantity of coastal protected areas has increased quickly in recent years, but the growth in area was limited. In addition, the increase in numbers was influenced mainly by the expansion of NSMRs in the last 10 years, most likely because the exploitation of NNRs is more strictly controlled than NSMRs. Understanding how to reach the balance between environmental conservation and economic development is a topic still being explored by many local governments in China.
Table 3 Change in the proportion of protected coastline in China between 1990 and 2017. Years
Coastal NNRs (%)
NSMRs (%)
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2017
2.04 4.26 8.69 9.09 10.40 10.57 10.57
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.36 1.07 4.82 6.23
Fig. 7. Comparison of landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) of coastal NNRs, NSMRs and coastal zone in different periods between 1990 and 2015.
Qiantang River has had more intense human activity with a longer duration because it was easier to develop and use than the rocky coast to the south (Cui et al., 2016; Xu and Zhang, 2007). Furthermore, there are more coastal wetlands in the northern part of the Chinese coastline than the southern part, and the development of human often depends on wetlands (Ma et al., 2015; Cui, 2012). From the point of view of landscape development strength and stress, the coastal zone of the Huanghai Sea and the Bohai Sea were the focus for coastal wetland conservation in mainland China. These areas are the main distribution area of the typical mudflat wetlands in mainland China, and provide a unique habitat for many species of waterbirds (Lei et al., 2017; Ma et al., 2015). Stricter protection measures should be adopted to restrict or prevent land development involving wetlands, especially in the coastal areas of Hebei and Jiangsu. These areas are key conservation 76
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Fig. 8. Correlation of landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) with population density and GDP in coastal zone of China.
and population density does not have to lead to an increase in the intensity of landscape development. We could decrease the disturbance stress from human activities by optimizing the development environment and layout, and emphasizing environmental protection to promote the conservation efficacy of the coastal wetlands. Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Acknowledgements This research has been supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFC0506205). We thank Leonie Seabrook, PhD, and Alex Boon, PhD, from LiwenBianji, Edanz Group China (www. liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript. Fig. 9. Relationship of landscape development intensity index (LDItotal) with population density and GDP of coastal zone of each province in China in 2015.
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