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Landscape pattern changes of Xiamen coastal zone and their impacts on local ecological security.

HUANG Ning1,2**, YANG Mian-hai1, LIN Zhi-lan3, YANG De-wei4, HUANG Yun-feng1,2   

  1. (1Bioengineering College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China; 2Institute of Environmental Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China; 3Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China; 4Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China)
  • Online:2012-12-10 Published:2012-12-10

Abstract: Coastal zone is a transitional area between land and sea, with intensive human activities and high sensitivity and vulnerability. By using remote sensing images and GIS techniques, this paper studied the dynamic changes of landscape pattern of Xiamen coastal zone during the urbanization from 1987 to 2011, and assessed the impacts of the landscape pattern changes on the local ecological security based on the index system derived from ecological security connotation, the landscape indices, and the ecosystem service value theory. Significant changes of landscape pattern occurred in the study area from 1987 to 2011. The area proportion of construction land was increased by 193.0%, that of arable land and forest land was decreased by 55.2% and 41.4%, respectively, and the mudflat was converted into mariculture area and arable land in the early time and turned into construction land/bare land and water area in the middle and late periods, with a total decrease of mudflat area by 47.1%. Along with the rise and decline of primary industry, the mariculture area was increased first but decreased sharply by 47.6% then. In the early time, the landscape of the study area was diverse, complex in shape, and dispersed in space; while after rapid development, the landscape tended to be simplified and concentrated and had more regular shape, and the natural landscape tended to be highly fragmentized and lowly connected. The changes of the landscape pattern made the ecological security index decreased from 0.561 to 0.430. During the period from 1995 to 2004, the dramatic reduction of mudflat area weakened the natural ecological function, which led to the decline of ecological security. After 2004, with the highly intensive development of the out-island of Xiamen, the natural ecological structure, function, and stability all decreased due to the changes of the connectivity, fragmentation degree, and separating degree of natural landscape and of the holistic landscape shape, including the continuous reduction of mudflat. As a result, the ecological security of the whole coastal zone was getting worse.