Impacts of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities on the Ecological Restoration of Wetlands in the Arid Regions of China
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Study Area
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Data Sources
3.2. Wetland Classification Indicator System
3.3. The Extraction Methods for Wetland Remote Sensing Information
3.4. Dynamic Monitoring Methods of Wetland Landscape
3.5. Landscape Pattern Fragmentation of Wetland Resources
3.6. Dynamics Monitoring Approach for Wetland Vegetation Covers
4. Results and Analysis
4.1. Dynamic Changes in Wetland Resources in HRB Since 2000
4.1.1. Dynamics of the Area of the Wetland Landscape
4.1.2. Dynamic Changes in the Land Cover Types in the HRB Wetland Landscape
4.1.3. Characteristics of Spatial Pattern Evolution of Wetland Landscape
4.2. Dynamic Changing Process of Landscape Patterns in the HRB Since 2000s
4.2.1. The Patch Type Scale Status of Landscape Patterns and Its Variation Characteristics
4.2.2. The Variation Characteristics of Landscape Pattern and Scale
4.3. The Dynamics Trend Analysis on Wetland Vegetation Cover
5. Discussion
5.1. The Impact of Natural Factors on the Dynamic Changes in Wetland Resources in the HRB
5.1.1. Climate Variation
5.1.2. The Change in Upstream Inflow and Midstream Consumption in the HRB
5.2. Influence of Human Factors on the Dynamic Changes in Wetland Resources in the HRB
5.2.1. Population Growth, Cultivated Land Increase and Planting Structure Adjustment
5.2.2. Variation in the Utilization of Water Resources
5.2.3. Policy Influences
5.3. Implications of the Wetland Dynamics on Wetland Protection and Water Resource Managment
6. Conclusions
- We monitored the spatial-temporal dynamic changes in wetland resources for the last 15 years in the reserve by applying images of four phases (2000, 2007, 2011 and 2014) and using 2000 as the benchmark year. The results showed that the change in wetland area generally presented a trend of slow increasing after an initial decreasing, and the characteristics of the phase could be clearly observed. From 2000 to 2007, wetland areas greatly decreased, and wetland degradation was severe. From 2007 to 2011, the area was still decreasing; however, the degradation had slowed. Since 2011, wetland areas had tended to slowly increase, indicating that wetland restoration projects had achieved initial successes in Zhangye, the wetland ecological environment had been improved, and the wetland degradation had been relieved to some degree. However, compared to the benchmark year, i.e., 2000, relatively speaking, the total wetland area continued to decrease. From 2000 to 2014, the total area of the wetland decreased by 2959.13 hectares during the last 15 years, with an average annual reduction rate as high as −1.09%.
- A detailed analysis of the driving forces of the wetland dynamic variations was conducted based on two aspects: natural factors and human factors. The main impact factors, including changes in climatic conditions, upper reach water inflow, population, water resources, and cultivated land, as well as policy influences were analyzed. Thus, it was found that the dynamic changing process of wetland resources was the result of concurrent activities between nature and human activities. The growth in wetland vegetation and the natural distribution of wetland landscapes have been affected by natural factors through water resource changes. However, the natural landscape of wetlands had been significantly altered by human activities and social factors such as water source management policies, engineering measures for wetland protection and wetland park constructions, consequently influencing landscape planning and layout in both the reserve and the wetland park.
Supplementary Materials
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Wetland Types | 2000–2007 Year | 2007–2011 Year | 2011–2014 Year | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 Area (ha) | Variation (ha) | Rate of change (%) | 2007 Area (ha) | Variation (ha) | Rate of change (%) | 2011 Area (ha) | Variation (ha) | Rate of change (%) | |
River wetland | 10036.73 | −2935.23 | −4.18 | 7101.51 | −593.48 | −2.09 | 6508.03 | −634.87 | −13.51 |
Lake Wetland | 83.01 | −26.29 | −4.52 | 56.73 | −23.93 | −10.55 | 32.79 | 55.63 | 56.55 |
Marsh Wetland | 7823.94 | −15.29 | −0.03 | 7808.65 | −132.70 | −0.42 | 7675.95 | 1226.59 | 337.97 |
Constructed Wetlands | 1422.65 | −142.93 | −1.44 | 1279.71 | 181.44 | 3.54 | 1461.16 | 81.92 | 221.39 |
Total area Wetland | 19366.34 | −3119.73 | −2.30 | 16246.60 | −568.67 | −0.88 | 15677.93 | 729.27 | 602.39 |
Year | Area-Weighted Mean Patch Fractal Dimension (AWMPFD) | Patch Density (PD) | Dominance Index (DI) | Species Diversity Index (SDI) | Species Evenness Index (SEI) | Mean Shape Index (MSI) | Mean Shape Size (MPS) | Patch Number (NumP) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | 1.333 | 0.016 | 0.758 | 2.187 | 0.743 | 2.562 | 63.250 | 660 |
2007 | 1.323 | 0.017 | 0.837 | 2.107 | 0.716 | 2.271 | 58.143 | 718 |
2011 | 1.319 | 0.021 | 0.835 | 2.161 | 0.721 | 2.015 | 47.212 | 883 |
2014 | 1.391 | 0.307 | 0.789 | 2.302 | 0.745 | 2.330 | 3.259 | 12797 |
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Wang, H.; Ma, M. Impacts of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities on the Ecological Restoration of Wetlands in the Arid Regions of China. Energies 2016, 9, 166. https://doi.org/10.3390/en9030166
Wang H, Ma M. Impacts of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities on the Ecological Restoration of Wetlands in the Arid Regions of China. Energies. 2016; 9(3):166. https://doi.org/10.3390/en9030166
Chicago/Turabian StyleWang, Haibo, and Mingguo Ma. 2016. "Impacts of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities on the Ecological Restoration of Wetlands in the Arid Regions of China" Energies 9, no. 3: 166. https://doi.org/10.3390/en9030166