Protection efficacy of national wetland reserves in China

Wetlands have the most abundant biodiversity,the highest carbon sequestration capacity,and the highest values for ecological services per unit area,of all the world’s ecosystems.Practice has shown that establishing reserves is the most effective way of protecting typical ecosystems and their biodiversity,and saving rare or endangered wildlife.The Chinese government’s policy is to protect wetland systems by establishing reserves that encompass a massive network of wetlands,including wetland nature re-serves,internationally important wetlands,and wetland parks.Many are already established.The effect of protecting wetland nature reserves at the national level has not yet been reported.We used the latest database evaluating the protection value of wet-land reserves,and remotely sensed wetland maps(1978-2008) ,developed by the same mapping specialists and based on the same classification system,and related environmental data,to evaluate the effects of protecting China’s national wetland reserves over the last 30 years.We conclude that(i) the total area of wetland in the national wetland reserves has decreased over the last 30 years to 8152.47 km2,and just 8% of China’s net decrease in wetlands;(ii) about 79% of the 91 national wetland reserves are in a poor condition.These are generally located around the Yangtze River,Eastern Coast,the Three Rivers Source,and Southwest China.Protection measures should be undertaken urgently in these areas.Only 15% of national wetland reserves are under sound protection,and these are generally located in the upper reaches of the Songhua River;(iii) although 88% of national wetland re-serves are primitive(relatively natural) ,implying that the site selection has been scientific,a high percentage of national wetland reserves show early warning signs of decline and require urgent attention;(iv) based on our evaluation of protection effects and pressures on ecology,we have made a priority list of national wetland reserves,and propose several protection strategies.     

Preliminary estimation of the organic carbon pool in China’s wetlands

Accurate estimation of wetland carbon pools is a prerequisite for wetland resource conservation and implementation of carbon sink enhancement plans.The inventory approach is a realistic method for estimating the organic carbon pool in China’s wetlands at the national scale.An updated data and inventory approach were used to estimate the amount of organic carbon stored in China’s wetlands.Primary results are as follows:(1) the organic carbon pool of China’s wetlands is between 5.39 and 7.25 Pg,accounting for 1.3%-3.5% of the global level;(2) the estimated values and percentages of the organic carbon contained in the soil,water and vegetation pools in China’s wetlands are 5.04-6.19 Pg and 85.4%-93.5%,0.22-0.56 Pg and 4.1%-7.7%,0.13-0.50 Pg and 2.4%-6.9%,respectively.The soil organic carbon pool of China’s wetlands is greater than our previous estimate of 3.67 Pg,but is lower than other previous estimates of 12.20 and 8-10 Pg.Based on the discussion and uncertainty analysis,some research areas worthy of future attention are presented.     

中国若尔盖高原湿地的生态补偿基线研究

本文选择我国甘肃尕海—则岔、甘肃黄河首曲和四川若尔盖3处国家级自然保护区作为若尔盖高原湿地研究区,构建委托-代理框架探究影响牧民保护湿地积极性的因素,运用耦合群落调查法和遥感解译法完成了若尔盖高原湿地边界的遥感制图,旨在研究我国若尔盖高原湿地的生态补偿基线.结果表明:研究区高原湿地面积约为1 463km2,其生态系统服务价值为274.29亿元,湿地生态补偿标准应以每亩110元为下限,1.25万元为上限,实施过程中综合考虑牧民年均收入、其他保护相关成本等因素.     

Mapping wetland changes in China between 1978 and 2008

Four wetland maps for all China have been produced,based on Landsat and CBERS-02B remote sensing data between 1978 and 2008 (1978,1990,2000 and 2008).These maps were mainly developed by manual interpretation and validated by substantial field investigation in 2009.Based on these maps,we analyzed the 2008 wetland distribution in China and discussed wetland changes and their drivers over the past 30 years.(i) There were about 324097 km 2 of wetlands in 2008,for which inland marshes or swamps were the most common wetland type (35%),with lakes (26%) second.Most of the wetlands were in Heilongjiang,Inner Mongolia,Qinghai and Tibet,occupying about 55% of the national wetland area.(ii) From 1978 to 2008,China’s wetland area continually and significantly decreased,by about 33% based on changes in the wetland map.This was in sharp contrast to the increase in artificial wetlands,which increased by about 122%.Inland marshes accounted for the main loss of total wetlands from 1978 to 2000.From 2000 through 2008,riverine and lacustrine wetlands constituted the main wetland loss.Fortunately however,the rate of wetland loss decreased from 5523 to 831 km 2 /a.(iii) The change ratio of lost natural wetlands (including inland and coastal wetlands) to non-wetlands has decreased slightly over the past 30 years.From 1978 to 1990,nearly all natural wetlands (98%) lost were transformed into non-wetlands.However,the ratio declined to 86% from 1990 to 2000,and to 77% from 2000 to 2008.(iv) All Chinese provinces were divided into three groups according to patterns of wetland changes,which could relate to the driving forces of such changes.Tibet was completely different from other provinces,as it was one representative example in which there was a net wetland increase,because of global warming and decreased human activity since 1990.Increased economic development caused considerable wetland loss in most eastern provinces,and artificial wetlands increased.