National and Local Joint Laboratory of Wetland and Ecological Conservation, Institute of Natural Resources and Ecology, Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150040, China.
School of International Economics and Management, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China; Institute for Culture and Tourism Development, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jan 20;805:150291. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150291. Epub 2021 Sep 10.
A high biodiversity conservation value of a specific area generally indicates biodiversity priorities, making biodiversity conservation planning more reasonable. However, the spatial prioritization of biodiversity cannot easily indicate temporal changes because the data of many species are difficult to obtain in even a single period, let alone repeated surveys. Here, we show that the easily available wetland hydrological pattern and connectivity (HCP) variables are effective surrogates for the monitoring of biodiversity conservation value. We used the Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) method to evaluate the historical biodiversity conservation value (BCV), represented by Irreplaceability Index, by integrating the predicted spatial distribution of biodiversity features in 1995. We then calculated the wetland HPC indexes in randomly setup samples within a certain radius and analysed the correlation between the BCV and HPC indexes with a regression method. Finally, we further simulated the numerical and spatial changes of the BCV in different periods to illustrate its variation regularity. We found that the BCV considerably decreased in the study area. In conclusion, we confirmed that the wetland HPC indexes are significantly correlated with and can simulate the BCV indicator. We further identified the spatial locations of these degraded areas and proposed conservation and restoration scenarios for the study area. This study verified the impacts of HPC changes on wetland biodiversity caused by human-induced land use change; it also provides a reference for long-term assessment of wetland biodiversity change. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Among other abilities, effective biodiversity conservation should have the abilities to both prioritize the conservation value and detect its spatial changes. However, the assessment of biodiversity conservation value needs sufficient and high-quality species occurrence data and multi-period comparison. Here, we find that the relatively well accessible wetland hydrological pattern and connectivity indexes are effective surrogates for the change detection of wetland biodiversity conservation value. This means that wetland biodiversity conservation planners can monitor the biodiversity conservation situations without resource-consuming investigations to obtain species' occurrence data and repeated prioritization of the conservation value.
一个特定区域的高生物多样性保护价值通常表明生物多样性的优先事项，使生物多样性保护规划更加合理。然而，生物多样性的空间优先化并不容易指示时间变化，因为即使在一个单一时期内，许多物种的数据也很难获得，更不用说重复调查了。在这里，我们表明，湿地水文格局和连通性（HCP）变量很容易作为监测生物多样性保护价值的替代物。我们使用系统保护规划（SCP）方法来评估生物多样性特征的空间分布预测值，代表生物多样性保护价值的不可替代性指数。然后，我们在一定半径内的随机样本中计算湿地 HPC 指数，并通过回归方法分析 BCV 与 HPC 指数之间的相关性。最后，我们进一步模拟了不同时期的 BCV 的数值和空间变化，以说明其变化规律。我们发现，研究区域的 BCV 显著下降。总之，我们证实湿地 HPC 指数与 BCV 指标显著相关，并可以模拟该指标。我们进一步确定了这些退化区域的空间位置，并为研究区域提出了保护和恢复方案。这项研究验证了人为土地利用变化引起的 HPC 变化对湿地生物多样性的影响；它还为湿地生物多样性变化的长期评估提供了参考。
