Wetlands and global climate change: the role of wetland restoration in a changing world

Global climate change is recognized as a threat to species survival and the health of natural systems. Scientists worldwide are looking at the ecological and hydrological impacts resulting from climate change. Climate change will make future efforts to restore and manage wetlands more complex. Wetland systems are vulnerable to changes in quantity and quality of their water supply, and it is expected that climate change will have a pronounced effect on wetlands through alterations in hydrological regimes with great global variability. Wetland habitat responses to climate change and the implications for restoration will be realized differently on a regional and mega-watershed level, making it important to recognize that specific restoration and management plans will require examination by habitat. Floodplains, mangroves, seagrasses, saltmarshes, arctic wetlands, peatlands, freshwater marshes and forests are very diverse habitats, with different stressors and hence different management and restoration techniques are needed. The Sundarban (Bangladesh and India), Mekong river delta (Vietnam), and southern Ontario (Canada) are examples of major wetland complexes where the effects of climate change are evolving in different ways. Thus, successful long term restoration and management of these systems will hinge on how we choose to respond to the effects of climate change. How will we choose priorities for restoration and research? Will enough water be available to rehabilitate currently damaged, water-starved wetland ecosystems? This is a policy paper originally produced at the request of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and incorporates opinion, interpretation and scientific-based arguments.     

Agro-Successional Restoration as a Strategy to Facilitate Tropical Forest Recovery

With the increasing need to restore former agricultural lands worldwide and in the tropics, in particular, it is critical to explore different models for how to restore these lands in a cost-effective manner which best simulates natural forest recovery and provides for human livelihoods. We propose that agro-successional restoration, which we define as incorporating a range of agroecology and agroforestry techniques as a transition phase early in forest restoration, could be used more widely to overcome socioeconomic and ecological obstacles to restoring these lands. Over centuries, farmers and scientists have developed various agroforestry techniques that aim to cultivate crops and trees, in a range of crop types, time periods of cultivation (a few years to several decades), and complexity of species planted. The management practices used in these systems, such as weeding and increasing soil fertility, parallel those used in many forest restoration efforts. The synergism between these approaches is evidenced by many existing agro-successional examples currently used by smallholders in the tropics. Benefits of the agro-successional model include extending the management period of restoration, offsetting some management costs, providing food security for small landholders, and involving small landholders in the restoration process.     

Vegetation,Invertebrate, and Wildlife Community Rankings and Habitat Analysis of Mitigation Wetlands in West Virginia

Numerous efforts have been made in West Virginia to construct and restore compensatory wetlands as mitigation for natural wetlands destroyed through highway development, timbering, mining, and other human activities. Because such little effort has been made to evaluate these wetlands, there is a need to evaluate the success of these systems. The objective of this study was to determine if mitigation wetlands in West Virginia were adequately supporting ecological communities relative to naturally occurring reference wetlands and to attribute specific characteristics in wetland habitat with trends in wildlife abundance across wetlands. Specifically, avian and anuran communities, as well as habitat quality for eight wetland-dependent wildlife species were evaluated. To supplement this evaluation, vegetation and invertebrate communities also were assessed. Wetland ranks were assigned based on several parameters including richness, abundance, diversity, density, and biomass, depending on which taxa was being analyzed. Mitigation wetlands consistently scored better ranks than reference wetlands across all communities analyzed. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed no correlations between environmental variables and community data. However, trends relating wetland habitat characteristics to community structure were observed. These data stress the need to maintain specific habitat characteristics in mitigated wetlands that are compatible with wildlife colonization and proliferation.     

疏浚泥用于滨海湿地生态工程现状及在我国应用潜力

疏浚泥传统的海上倾倒方式现已成为海洋的主要污染来源,而将疏浚泥应用到滨海湿地生态工程具有重要的价值和意义。疏浚泥应用于滨海湿地生态工程在国外的系统研究超过40a,工程运用已有上百年的历史。综述了海洋疏浚泥运用于滨海湿地生态工程的研究前沿和工程运用现状,同时分析其典型的生态工程案例,以期为我国的技术推广提供参考。疏浚泥用于生态工程用途主要有:(1)生态保育下沉和侵蚀性海岸湿地:人为补给疏浚泥可以补偿因高程降低或者海岸侵蚀带来的负面影响,国际上通常采用疏浚泥薄层覆盖法。(2)生态修复受损的滨海湿地:疏浚泥作为基质恢复和重建其潮间带生境,修复因围垦等人类活动严重受损的湿地,从而恢复湿地植被群落;(3)建造人工生态岛:将疏浚泥堆置于便利处,形成自然疏浚泥岛,按照不同的设计高程创造出不同的生境,随着自然的演替,岛屿演替成为生物多样性高和生境丰富的岛屿。以国际上的疏浚泥生态工程运用为借鉴,结合目前我国海洋经济发展的现状和滨海湿地面临的一系列挑战,分析疏浚泥在我国滨海湿地生态重建和生态修复等工程方面的应用前景,为缓解我国海洋产业经济发展和滨海湿地生态环境保护之间的矛盾提供技术借鉴。     

Optimal control of population recovery – the role of economic restoration threshold

A variety of ecological systems around the world have been damaged in recent years, either by natural factors such as invasive species, storms and global change or by direct human activities such as overfishing and water pollution. Restoration of these systems to provide ecosystem services entails significant economic benefits. Thus, choosing how and when to restore in an optimal fashion is important, but has not been well studied. Here we examine a general model where population growth can be induced or accelerated by investing in active restoration. We show that the most cost‐effective method to restore an ecosystem dictates investment until the population approaches an ‘economic restoration threshold’, a density above which the ecosystem should be left to recover naturally. Therefore, determining this threshold is a key general approach for guiding efficient restoration management, and we demonstrate how to calculate this threshold for both deterministic and stochastic ecosystems.     

内蒙古半干旱生态脆弱矿区生态修复耦合机理与产业模式

近年,煤炭开采带动矿区经济发展的同时也造成了严重的生态环境问题。由此产生生态修复和土地复垦产业延伸的生态环境治理和矿区产业调整优化方面研究热点,二者形成的耦合系统可在恢复受损土地的同时,以治理和循环生产为契机延伸产业链。受损地形重塑及边开采边恢复技术开发及应用形成安全稳定地形条件是前提,其次是土壤的恢复重构,在当地条件下迅速恢复具备良好理化性质,供植被和经济能源作物生长和景观格局构建,最终形成修复产业和生态产业的价值创造平台。根据耦合系统的工艺特点,每年内蒙矿区利用该耦合系统以矿区受损土地修复进行循环生产生态修复产品的潜力约21915.51万吨和经济能源作物的潜力约21.15万t。     

Restoration Enhances Wetland Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Supply,but Results Are Context-Dependent: A Meta-Analysis

Wetlands are valuable ecosystems because they harbor a huge biodiversity and provide key services to societies. When natural or human factors degrade wetlands, ecological restoration is often carried out to recover biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Although such restorations are routinely performed, we lack systematic, evidence-based assessments of their effectiveness on the recovery of biodiversity and ES. Here we performed a meta-analysis of 70 experimental studies in order to assess the effectiveness of ecological restoration and identify what factors affect it. We compared selected ecosystem performance variables between degraded and restored wetlands and between restored and natural wetlands using response ratios and random-effects categorical modeling. We assessed how context factors such as ecosystem type, main agent of degradation, restoration action, experimental design, and restoration age influenced post-restoration biodiversity and ES. Biodiversity showed excellent recovery, though the precise recovery depended strongly on the type of organisms involved. Restored wetlands showed 36% higher levels of provisioning, regulating and supporting ES than did degraded wetlands. In fact, wetlands showed levels of provisioning and cultural ES similar to those of natural wetlands; however, their levels of supporting and regulating ES were, respectively, 16% and 22% lower than in natural wetlands. Recovery of biodiversity and of ES were positively correlated, indicating a win-win restoration outcome. The extent to which restoration increased biodiversity and ES in degraded wetlands depended primarily on the main agent of degradation, restoration actions, experimental design, and ecosystem type. In contrast, the choice of specific restoration actions alone explained most differences between restored and natural wetlands. These results highlight the importance of comprehensive, multi-factorial assessment to determine the ecological status of degraded, restored and natural wetlands and thereby evaluate the effectiveness of ecological restorations. Future research on wetland restoration should also seek to identify which restoration actions work best for specific habitats.     

基于多时相Landsat TM影像的汶川地震灾区河岸带植被覆盖动态监测——以岷江河谷映秀-汶川段为例

基于混合像元分解方法,利用Landsat TM卫星遥感数据监测了岷江上游干旱河谷区映秀\汶川段河岸带植被在汶川地震前后的植被覆盖动态变化,并结合高程、坡度及坡向数据,分析了植被受损及地震3a后植被恢复的空间分布特征。结果表明,地震造成研究区河岸带植被的受损总面积为2736.61hm²,且集中分布在海拔1100-1700m,坡度25-55°之间以及东、东南和西坡;地震3年后,受损植被与震前相比,共恢复了56.20%。     

水体消落带国内外研究综述

消落带区域是生态环境敏感脆弱地带,其严峻的生态环境安全问题成为国内外专家学者关注的焦点。如何减缓和阻止消落带自然植被的退化和萎缩,恢复和重建受损的消落带生态系统成为国内外研究热点。论文结合国内外消落带研究成果,概述了消落带的分类和功能,并从消落带存在的生态环境问题、植被生态修复与治理以及消落带的开发利用和管理等方面全面概述消落带国内外研究现状,在此基础上指出现有研究存在的不足,提出了今后消落带的重点研究方向。     

Development of a multimetric plant-based index of biotic integrity for assessing the ecological state of forested,urban and agricultural natural wetlands of Jimma Highlands,Ethiopia

Wetlands are vital natural resources thereby providing ecological and socio-economic benefits to the people. However, anthropogenic activities have seriously changed the ecological conditions of wetlands worldwide, especially in developing nations like Ethiopia. Predominantly, the absence of biomonitoring tool greatly hampers the protection and management of wetlands. Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop a plant-based index of biological integrity for facilitating the management of wetlands. Accordingly, 122 plant species belonging to 37 families were collected and identified from forested, urban and agricultural wetland types and included in the analysis of the plant metrics. Initially, we reviewed and screened 35 potential metrics. Then, we selected four core metrics (% cover of native species, sensitive plant species richness, tolerant plant species richness and% of shrub species richness) using the decrease or increase responses to human disturbances, Mann-Whitney U test and redundant metric test. A trisect-quartile range system using box plots of the reference or impaired sites of wetlands was established to provide values for each core metrics. Then after, we combined the core metrics to develop the plant-based index of biological integrity. Finally, we validated the index by comparing the index response to different wetland types. Additionally, the index was validated based on the measured environmental variables that characterize the human disturbance gradient of wetlands. We found that the plant-based index is robust to discriminate the reference wetlands from impaired wetlands and can also be used as an effective tool for evaluating the long term natural wetland conditions of the Eastern African wetlands in the future.     

广州市海岸带生态环境现状及保护

广州市海岸带位于珠江入海口,为淤泥质冲积平原,滩涂面积广阔,湿地类型多样,野生动植物资源丰富.调查分析显示,近20年以来,海岸带的生态环境发生了深刻的变化.突出表现为天然湿地丧失或转化为受控湿地、淡水水体和海水水质恶化、生物资源衰退、外来生物入侵、洪涝灾害加剧等问题,形成人为活动干扰十分强烈的生态脆弱带.这些问题的产生与海涂围垦等海岸带开发活动密切相关.随着广州市“南拓”空间发展战略的提出,海岸带资源开发力度将进一步加强,尽管市政府在海洋保护、红树林湿地恢复重建和保护区建设等方面开展了大量工作,但海岸带的生态环境保护依然不容忽视.     

粤港澳大湾区海岸带生态系统保护和修复策略

粤港澳大湾区是我国海岸带高强度开发区域,面临着生态环境质量不高、生态系统受损严重的压力,开展海岸带生态系统保护修复是绿色湾区发展的必然需求。在分析大湾区海岸带基底、生态环境现状及问题的基础上,提出大湾区海岸带生态系统保护修复规划的策略,从以下5个方面构筑粤港澳大湾区海岸带生态系统保护修复规划的体系：一是从陆海污染统筹治理来恢复海域生物生存环境;二是从自然岸线保护、自然保护地体系重构与规范化建设、珍稀濒危物种栖息地保护来加强海岸带生态的保护;三是通过岸线生态修复、典型滨海湿地生态系统（红树林、珊瑚礁、海草床）修复、受损海岛生态修复来构筑生态安全屏障;四是从海堤生态化改造与建设、沿海防护林体系建设和海岸带综合防护工程建设来促进生态减灾协同增效;五是打造智慧海岸带管理服务平台来保障海洋命运共同体健康发展。本研究提出大湾区海岸带生态保护修复策略,期望为大湾区生态建设和环境保护提供参考。     

新疆哈巴河桦木属湿地3600年以来的植被变化和人类活动

湿地是水陆相互作用形成的独特自然综合体,对全球气候变化敏感,尤其是干旱半干旱区分布的湿地对自然环境和人类活动的响应更为显著。基于新疆哈巴河地区桦木林湿地人工开挖130 cm深的地层剖面,结合较高时间分辨率的¹⁴C测年数据和孢粉组合,揭示出该区3600年来曾经历5个时段的植被变化和人类活动的影响。3540—3430 cal a BP期间,该区以蒿属(Artemisia)等旱生植物为主,湿地尚未形成;3430—2640 cal a BP期间,局地小环境较湿润,湿生草本和以沼泽蕨(Thelypteris palustris)为代表的蕨类植物大量生长,落叶阔叶的桦木属(Betula)植物开始出现;至2640—660 cal a BP期间,浅水湿地开始形成,桦木属植物迅速扩张,但在大区域仍分布着由藜科(Chenopodiaceae)和蒿属等为主要组成的荒漠植被;尤其在660—210 cal a BP期间,桦木属成为森林的优势种;值得关注的是,近200年以来,该区以藜科为代表的草本植物增多,而桦木林出现萎缩。通过对选取的典型局域湿地不同历史时期环境变化和人类活动影响的研究,揭...     

雄安新区白洋淀生态属性辨析及生态修复保护研究

湿地是自然界生物多样性最丰富的生态系统之一,与社会发展和人类福祉息息相关。近年来,由于全球气候变化和人类活动的过度干扰,湿地正面临着面积萎缩、功能减弱、多样性降低等诸多问题,湿地退化已经成为制约区域可持续性发展的重大阻碍。伴随着生态文明建设逐渐成为中国特色社会主义建设的重要支柱,湿地生态修复工作得到前所未有的制度保障。深入剖析湿地属性,结合政策保障,有针对性的提出湿地保护与修复的治理措施,对区域的生态环境建设和可持续性发展具有重要意义。选择国家级新区-雄安新区的水命脉-白洋淀湿地为研究对象,在深入剖析其生态属性和已存在的生态问题的基础上,结合生态修复的原则、方法和步骤,提出生态修复与保护的可行性策略。研究结果表明,白洋淀本质是典型的湖泊湿地,同时兼具沼泽湿地特征,由于人类活动的剧烈干扰,白洋淀有向沼泽湿地逆向演替的变化趋势。湿地内存在面积萎缩、水资源量短缺、水环境污染问题突出及生物多样性减少等生态问题。本研究建议:为顺利建设雄安新区,首先,白洋淀湿地在算清"水账"、"污账"和"生态账"的前提下,进一步加强流域水资源调配,科学确定白洋淀湿地最佳水位,恢复淀区水量;其次,通过使用清洁生产技术和限制高排污企业建设等措施,加强污染防治,恢复湿地水质;最后,依据生态承载力理论,划分白洋淀流域的生态功能红线、环境质量红线和资源利用红线等国家生态保护红线体系,为尽快恢复湿地结构与功能提供制度保障。     

粤东北矿山废弃地植被恢复模式探讨

矿山废弃地植被恢复是基于土壤环境改良的前提下,充分考虑植物景观的营造手段,结合生态学要求构建近自然群落。通过对广东省梅州市不同类型的矿山废弃地植被自然恢复的现场调查研究,结合国内外矿山废弃地的研究成果,指出粤东北地区矿山废弃地植物的修复原则,并提出植被恢复的具体修复方法。     

A review of methodologies and success indicators for coastal wetland restoration

Coastal wetlands are considered to be amongst the most productive ecosystems and can provide invaluable ecological services. However, coastal wetlands are listed amongst the most threatened ecosystems suffering from anthropogenic activities. The loss or degradation of coastal wetlands has drawn a high level of attention to wetland restoration. Improvement of the structure and function of degraded, damaged and destroyed wetlands may be achieved through ecological restoration. Large numbers of restoration projects have been conducted worldwide based on different restoration goals and different methods. It is undoubtedly important to evaluate whether coastal wetland restoration is successful. However, coastal wetland restoration assessment has become challenging because of current disagreement on definitions and concepts of restoration evaluation. We reviewed the methodology of coastal wetland restoration and criteria for success evaluation, and then summarized the issues for current wetland restoration and success evaluation based on literature review. Moreover, we used an estuarine wetland affected by urbanization as a sample to demonstrate how to establish a success indicator system for guiding wetland restoration and evaluating the success of wetland restoration.     

典型红壤区自然生态修复的适用性

自然修复主要通过封山育林、禁止农作、禁牧禁伐措施,减少人类对环境的扰动,利用自然生态环境的自我演替能力,恢复生态环境,实现生态平衡。自然修复作为一种成本低、无污染的生态修复手段很早就受到人们重视,但关于自然修复适用范围的研究较少。为了正确认识自然修复的适用性,选择了我国南方红壤地区长期遭受严重土壤侵蚀危害的福建省长汀县为研究对象,通过对长期自然修复样地的监测资料分析,发现在坡度条件为20%—30%下,当植被覆盖度低于20%的退化阈值时,严重的土壤侵蚀引发的土壤肥力损失将导致生态系统自我退化,自然修复不仅无法改善当地的生态系统,反而会引起生态系统的进一步恶化。由此可见,自然修复并不适合所有的生态系统,当生态系统退化到一定程度时,退化生态系统必须通过人工干预来修复。因此,必须探索适合当地的生态修复模式,在生态系统退化突破阈值时,红壤丘陵区应通过恢复土壤肥力、促进自然植被覆盖度增加、综合提高生态系统健康水平。     

琼北火山熔岩湿地生态安全格局研究

火山熔岩湿地作为湿地系统中重要组成部分,广泛分布于海南岛北部火山岩地区,其生态安全状况直接影响着与其相连的水陆生态系统的安全。基于Landsat遥感影像、DEM数据以及植被覆盖指数,通过构建稳定性及敏感性评价体系,在景观斑块尺度上对海南岛北部火山熔岩湿地分布区1988-2018年的稳定性动态变化及敏感性现状进行分析,旨在探索该区域生态安全分布格局。结果表明：（1）1988和2018年两个时间节点的湿地斑块稳定性均以府城镇、城西镇、龙泉镇等熔岩湿地主要分布区域的稳定性最高,西南部农业用地区域及北部沿海地区斑块稳定性最弱;（2）1988-2018年期间研究区域熔岩湿地稳定性整体呈增长趋势,面积重心和稳定性重心在向南转移的同时在东西方向上呈收缩状态;（3）研究区域极度敏感和高度敏感区域主要分布在湿地密集分布区域,不敏感区域则主要分布在研究区域北部的海口市区及开发利用较多的沿海乡镇;（4）稳定性与敏感性结果呈正相关关系,湿地斑块稳定性低的沿海及城镇地区,在生态上多表现为不敏感和低敏感,而湿地斑块稳定性高的区域通常表现出高敏感性。这也说明自然生态系统相较人工生态系统,虽然其结构更为完善稳定,抗干扰能力相对较强,但也更容易遭到破坏,恢复周期长,因而在城镇发展等人为活动中需要慎重对待高敏感区域。     

基于CiteSpace的湿地恢复研究进展

由于人类活动、气候变化等影响,全球湿地退化不断加剧,关于湿地恢复的相关研究也越来越多,但缺乏系统的文献梳理,对研究领域的热点演变特征及发展趋势认识不足。基于文献计量学软件CiteSpace.5.5R2及中国知网(CNKI)和Web of Science核心数据库检索的文献数据,对湿地恢复领域的发文量、作者群、发文机构、文献共被引、高频关键词及突现等进行可视化分析。结果表明：(1)国内外关于湿地恢复研究的发文量总体上均呈现增长趋势,2008年之后发文量均显著提升,国内研究较国外晚了近10年,但发展迅速,国际影响力提升较快;(2)国外主要研究机构包括United States Geological Survey、Louisiana State University、University Florida、University Wisconsin等,均为美国机构,形成了以William JM-John WD、Zedler JB、Jos TA Verhoeven-Leon P M Lamers、Jeffrey WM等核心研究团队;国内以中国科学院、北京师范大学、中国林业科学研究院为主,形成了崔保...     

Plant Community Recovery following Restoration in Temporally Variable Riparian Wetlands

Wetlands historically provided many ecosystem services but most have been lost or degraded through land conversion. Recent appreciation for wetland values and increasing ecotourism in the Central Platte River Valley (U.S.A.) has promoted restoration of wet meadow systems, although recovery patterns are not well known. We quantified plant community structure in sloughs (deeper habitats) and adjacent margins (slightly higher elevation) of six wetland sites, restored for 1–7 years at the onset of a 3-year study, and three natural wetlands to assess recovery dynamics. Plant community metrics recovered differentially between habitats. Within restored margins, richness and diversity showed a weak quadratic response with time since restoration, indicating that both indexes overshoot natural levels shortly following restoration. Within sloughs, richness and diversity showed no change with time, suggesting that recovery occurs more quickly in these deeper, moister habitats. Percent similarity of plant communities in restorations and natural wetlands increased linearly over time. However, ordinations of plant community composition showed that recovery was strongly influenced by site-specific hydrology and that recovery may not be a linear trajectory toward natural systems. The analysis and interpretation of plant community dynamics revealed several challenges to restoration assessment, including the role of interannual variability in precipitation, limitations to hydrologic recovery, and temporal variability in plant community structure in natural systems that resulted in "moving targets" for recovery comparisons. Temporal variability in climate must be considered when assessing restoration success in systems where plant community structure is responsive to variable moisture regimes.