Rapid Reclamation and Degradation of Suaeda salsa Saltmarsh along Coastal China’s Northern Yellow Sea

Jing Zhang, Yan Zhang, Huw Lloyd, Zhengwang Zhang and Donglai Li
Additional contact information
Jing Zhang: Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource and Epidemic Disease Prevention, College of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
Yan Zhang: Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource and Epidemic Disease Prevention, College of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
Huw Lloyd: Ecology and Environment Research Centre, Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester Street, Manchester M1 5GD, UK
Zhengwang Zhang: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Donglai Li: Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource and Epidemic Disease Prevention, College of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: Suaeda salsa saltmarshes are an important coastal wetland habitat of China’s northern Yellow Sea, which plays a critical role in sequestering carbon (blue carbon), protecting shorelines, maintaining biodiversity, and has substantial economic value (e.g., ecotourism). However, the area of S. salsa has been rapidly declining due to several different threats from reclamation and invasive species that impact its natural succession. Here, we map the changes in the distribution of the S. salsa saltmarshes along the northern Yellow Sea of China (NYSC) at 5-year intervals by applying the supervised maximum likelihood method to analyze Landsat images from 1988 to 2018 and investigate the potential impact of three important factors on habitat change by analyzing the temporal changes in S. salsa saltmarshes with other land covers. S. salsa saltmarsh areas have decreased by 63% (264 km 2 ha to 99 km 2 ), and the average loss of S. salsa saltmarshes was 5.5 km 2 /year along the NYSC over the past three decades. There have been many dramatic declines in the two main distribution areas of S. salsa saltmarshes with a 77% loss of habitat area in Liaodong Bay (from 112 km 2 to 26 km 2 ) and a 52% loss in the Yellow River Delta wetland-Guangli-Zhima estuarine wetland (from 137 km 2 to 65 km 2 ). Land reclamation is the most important impact factor in the loss of S. salsa saltmarshes, while there have been limited effects of natural succession and smooth cordgrass ( Spartina alterniflora ) invasion. In light of the important ecological services and economic value of the S. salsa habitat, emergency conservation actions (e.g., habitat restoration, strictly supervision) are needed to limit the rapid habitat loss, which should include the immediate cessation of extensive land reclamation along the NYSC.

Keywords: Suaeda salsa saltmarsh; land cover change; land reclamation; mudflat; Spartina alterniflora; Yellow Sea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/8/835/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/8/835/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:835-:d:611081

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().