Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China; Research Institute of Forest Resources Information Technique, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100001, China.
Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Sep 1;733:139423. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139423. Epub 2020 May 15.
The Poplar Ecological Retreat (PER) project is a significant environmental protection initiative implemented to protect the Dongting Lake wetlands ecosystem in China, and the ecological impacts of this project have gradually become a hot topic. In this study, water conservation was selected as an indicator of ecosystem function to explore the impact of the project by using the water yield module of the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and geographic statistical methods. Water yield and land-use changes were quantitatively evaluated, and significant changes in the wetland landscape configuration occurred after the PER project because forest beach, moss marshland and mudflat areas were transformed into a poplar-retreat area. Thus, the proportion of the poplar-retreat area and average water yield increased. By using the principal component and cluster analysis methods, climate change and landscape patterns were shown to be the dominant driving factors affecting water conservation under stable meteorological conditions. Moreover, the landscape heterogeneity that resulted from the landscape patterns had a greater impact than climate change, which means that reducing human activities can enhance water conservation. Additionally, the correlation between landscape heterogeneity and water yield indicated that reducing landscape fragmentation and improving aggregation also benefit water conservation. Therefore, the PER project is successful at enhancing ecological functions and protecting wetland environments, and it represents a good example of maintaining ecological sustainability despite local economic performance restrictions. This project serves as an important reference for the establishment of sustainable wetland ecological policies by national governments, and the results can provide theoretical support for landscape ecology and eco-hydrology research.
杨树生态保育项目（PER）是中国为保护洞庭湖湿地生态系统而实施的一项重大环保举措，该项目的生态影响逐渐成为热点话题。本研究选取水源涵养作为生态系统功能的指标，运用综合生态系统服务和权衡评估模型（InVEST）的产水量模块和地理统计方法，探讨了该项目的影响。定量评估了产水量和土地利用变化，PER 项目后湿地景观格局发生了显著变化，因为森林滩涂、藓沼泽地和泥滩地转变为杨树保育区。因此，杨树保育区的比例和平均产水量增加。通过主成分和聚类分析方法表明，在稳定气象条件下，气候变化和景观格局是影响水源涵养的主要驱动因素。此外，景观格局产生的景观异质性比气候变化的影响更大，这意味着减少人类活动可以增强水源涵养。同时，景观异质性与产水量之间的相关性表明，减少景观破碎化和提高聚集度也有利于水源涵养。因此，PER 项目成功地增强了生态功能，保护了湿地环境，代表了在地方经济表现受限的情况下维持生态可持续性的一个良好范例。该项目为各国政府制定可持续湿地生态政策提供了重要参考，研究结果可为景观生态学和生态水文学研究提供理论支持。
