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Wetland Degradation: Its Driving Forces and Environmental Impacts in the Sanjiang Plain, China

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Abstract

This study investigated human-induced long-term wetland degradation that occurred in the Sanjiang Plain. Results from analyzing land-use/land-cover data sets derived from remotely sensed Landsat Multispectral Scanner/Thematic Mapper imagery for four time points showed that wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain have been severely transformed, and the area of wetlands decreased by 38 % from 1976 to 1986, by 16 % from 1986 to 1995, and by 31 % from 1995 to 2005. This study showed that transition to agricultural cultivation accounted for 91 % of wetland losses, whereas transition to grassland and forest accounted for 7 % of the wetlands losses. Institutional strategies and market policies probably exerted great impacts on agricultural practice that directly or indirectly influenced the decrease in wetlands. This study also indicated that an increased population likely led to wetland conversion to cropland by showing a high correlation between population and cropland (R 2 = 0.92, P < 0.001). Wetland loss occurred during later time intervals at a low rate. This study suggests that the existing wetland-protection measures in the Sanjiang Plain should be reinforced further because of possible environmental consequences of wetland loss, such as enhanced soil carbon emission, changed hydrological cycling, and regional temperature increase.

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Acknowledgments

The research was jointly supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2012CB956103), the 100 Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences granted to Kaishan Song, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41171293). The authors are grateful to those who contributed to the generation of the 1986 and 1995 LULC data sets and to Huanjun Liu, Hongtao Duan, Ming Chen, and Jingping Xu for their efforts in generation of the 1976 and 2005 LULC data sets. The authors are indebted to Lin Li from Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, for valuable comments and improving the English language. Special thanks go to the handling editor and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that improved this manuscript.

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  1. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 4888, Shengbei Street, North-zone of High-tech District, Changchun, 130102, China

    Kaishan Song, Zongming Wang, Jia Du, Lei Liu, Lihong Zeng & Chunying Ren

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  1. Kaishan Song
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Correspondence to Kaishan Song or Zongming Wang.

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Song, K., Wang, Z., Du, J. et al. Wetland Degradation: Its Driving Forces and Environmental Impacts in the Sanjiang Plain, China. Environmental Management 54, 255–271 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0278-y

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