Abstract
Wetland vegetation plays a crucial role in wetland conservation policy formulation and global climate change research. This study analyzed remotely sensed images of West Dongting Lake (DTL) Wetland from 1994 to 2020. This wetland is one of the most important wetlands in the world. At the pixel scale, we applied the histogram comparison approach, the range variability analysis (RVA) method, and the structural equation model (SEM) to quantify spatial changes in the hydrological conditions of wetland lakes and the ecological effects of environmental factors (precipitation, temperature, nutrients, water coverage) on vegetation. We propose a climate (C) — hydrological status (S) — vegetation response (R) (CSR) framework to elucidate the propagation relationships between climate, hydrology, and wetland vegetation conditions. The study found that the hydrological degradation promotes the succession of vegetation into the lake, and the distribution is concentrated in the northern Yangtze River inflow area. And the extent of hydrological changes in the West DTL region reached 34.5% during the flood period. In addition, the post-dam period showed a high degree of hydro-ecological failure, accounting for 65% of the total. Within the wetland area, there was a significant negative correlation between water coverage nutrient levels and bare vegetation within the lake area. Nutrient levels were also significantly negatively correlated with wetland vegetation conditions. Rainfall and temperature influence wetland vegetation by affecting the condition of the water body. This research provides valuable insights into managing wetland water resources and ecological restoration under the influence of climate change and human activities and provides a basis for decision-making.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank their brothers at the North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power for their comments and help with this study.
Funding
This study was supported by Basic Research Project of Key Scientific Research Projects of the Colleges and Universities of Henan Province (23ZX012), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51779094).
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Xiangyu Bai conceived the study and wrote the first draft, the data collection and analysis was done by Xiangyu Bai and Weiqi Yuan, the methodology was analyzed with the help of Lintong Huang and Fengtian Hong, literature Wenxian Guo and Hongxiang Wang supervised the paper, and all authors provided comments and assistance on the first few versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Wang, H., Bai, X., Huang, L. et al. The spatial variation of hydrological conditions and their impact on wetland vegetation in connected floodplain wetlands: Dongting Lake Basin. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 8483–8498 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31673-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31673-4