生物多样性 ›› 2021, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (3): 385-393.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2020443

• 研究报告: 生态系统多样性 • 上一篇    下一篇

黄海生态区保护空缺分析

曲方圆1,2, 李淑芸1, 赵林林1,2, 杨松颖3,4, 万铭扬4, 蔡吕彤3, 张朝晖1,2,*()   

  1. 1.自然资源部第一海洋研究所, 山东青岛 266061
    2.青岛海洋科学与技术试点国家实验室, 山东青岛 266237
    3.世界自然基金会(瑞士)北京代表处, 北京 100037
    4.深圳市一个地球自然基金会, 广东深圳 518000
  • 收稿日期:2020-11-29 接受日期:2021-02-09 出版日期:2021-03-20 发布日期:2021-03-01
  • 通讯作者: 张朝晖
  • 作者简介:E-mail: zhangzhaohui@fio.org.cn

Conservation gap analysis for the Yellow Sea Ecoregion

Fangyuan Qu1,2, Shuyun Li1, Linlin Zhao1,2, Chungwing Yeung3,4, Mingyang Wan4, Lyutong Cai3, Zhaohui Zhang1,2,*()   

  1. 1. First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, Shandong 266061
    2. Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao, Shandong 266237
    3. World Wide Fund for Nature (Switzerland) Beijing Representative Office, Beijing 100037
    4. Shenzhen One Planet Foundation, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518000
  • Received:2020-11-29 Accepted:2021-02-09 Online:2021-03-20 Published:2021-03-01
  • Contact: Zhaohui Zhang

摘要:

黄海生态区是世界自然基金会筛选出来的全球最优先保护的43个海洋生态区之一。目前, 我国已在黄海生态区内建立多处海洋保护地, 有效保护了其海洋生态系统及生物多样性。然而我国海洋保护地管理和建设中仍有许多问题, 存在较多保护空缺区域。因此, 完善黄海生态区内的海洋保护地建设是非常关键的。本文利用空缺分析法研究了黄海生态区内的重要滨海湿地、关键物种以及重点海域, 以识别保护空缺理论图斑, 从而提出新建保护地的提议。根据空缺分析结果, 黄海生态区内的主要保护空缺为辽河口湿地、曹妃甸海草床、天津塘沽和黄骅湿地、胶东半岛湿地、舟山群岛等。建议优化整合黄河口海洋保护地, 扩大或新建斑海豹(Phoca largha)、勺嘴鹬(Eurynorhynchus pygmeus)保护地, 并加强对东亚江豚(Neophocaena asiaeorientalis sunameri)以及小须鲸(Balaenoptera acutorostrata)的调查研究, 以形成更有效的海洋保护地网络。

关键词: 黄海生态区, 海洋保护地, 空缺分析, 关键物种, 滨海湿地

Abstract

Aims: The Yellow Sea Ecoregion is one of 43 marine ecoregions and is considered a global conservation priority as identified by World Wide Fund for Nature. The Yellow Sea Ecoregion comprises 460,000 km2, has a mean water depth of 46 m, and contains abundant biodiversity and biological resources. Due to intensified anthropogenic activities and global climate change, the Yellow Sea Ecoregion is facing severe transboundary threats, which have had strong negative impacts on important habitats and key species of the region. To address this issue, the World Wide Fund for Nature organized Chinese, Japanese, and Korean scientists to prepare an assessment report on the status of biodiversity in the Yellow Sea Ecoregion, in which 23 potential priority areas were identified to promote conservation of the region. Until 2019, China had established 152 marine protected areas covering an area of 80,400 km2 in the Yellow Sea Ecoregion, which aim to protect marine ecosystems and biodiversity. However, several issues with China’s management and construction of the marine protected areas, such as a lack of top-level design, limited management capacity, a lack of financial funding, and poorly balanced spatial development, leave many conservation gaps to be filled to ensure protected areas operate effectively. Therefore, it is of vital importance to improve the designation, management and development of marine protected areas within the Yellow Sea Ecoregion.
Methods: In this paper, the research area was the portion of the Yellow Sea Ecoregion identified by World Wide Fund for Nature under China’s jurisdiction. We used a gap analysis to identify important yet unprotected coastal wetland, key marine species, and marine ecosystems of the Yellow Sea Ecoregion. We first identified the important ecological function zones, areas rich in biodiversity, important habitats, and landscape geological relics and mapped their distribution as potential priority areas. Next, we collected information on the distribution of existing marine protected areas. We then used ArcGIS 10.4 to compare the distributions of our identified potential priority areas with the distributions of existing marine protected areas to identify conservation gaps, and proposed new marine protected areas based on the identified gap patches.
Results: Based on our analysis, the key conservation gaps of the Yellow Sea Ecoregion were located in the Yellow River estuary; the coastal wetlands in the Liaohe Estuary, Huanghua and Tanggu, the Jiaodong Peninsula, and Jiangsu Province; the Caofeidian seagrass bed; the Zhoushan fishing ground; and the breeding area and migratory route of spotted seal. The Daliao River Estuary and the southern part of Liaohe Estuary wetlands in Yingkou, the Caofeidian seagrass bed, the wetland along the east coast of Huanghua, the Tiaozini wetland, the Yuhe Estuary, and the Weihe Estuary wetland were the relatively larger gap patches. Spotted seal (Phoca largha), Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus), East Asian Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis sunameri) and Common Minke Whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) were key species of concern.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that new marine protected areas for Spotted Seal and Spoon-billed Sandpiper be established near Dalian along Jiangsu coast. At the same time, a lack of accurate distribution data hinders understanding the protection needs of East Asian Finless Porpoises and Common Minke Whales. To enhance our understanding of their distributions, further research and surveys of East Asian Finless Porpoises and Common Minke Whales are needed to inform the establishment of suitable protected areas and bolster the effectiveness of the marine protected network. We recommend that strengthening the scientific designation and management of marine protected areas, actively integrating resources from all sectors of society to conduct research and assessment, guaranteeing funding sources, promoting sustainable development of marine ecological industry, enhancing capacity building and the degree of stakeholder participation, and applying more creative cooperation approaches are fundamental to ensuring the success of future designation, management, and development of marine protected areas in the Yellow Sea Ecoregion.

Key words: Yellow Sea Ecoregion, marine protected area, gap analysis, key species, coastal wetland, biodiversity, conservation