IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v7y2014i4p2515-2534d35342.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wetland Changes and Their Responses to Climate Change in the “Three-River Headwaters” Region of China since the 1990s

Author

Listed:
  • Laga Tong

    (State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Xinliang Xu

    (State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Ying Fu

    (State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Shuang Li

    (State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

Abstract

The wetland ecosystem in the “Three-River Headwaters” (TRH) region plays an irreplaceable role in water source conservation, run-off adjustment and biodiversity maintenance. In recent years, assessment of wetland resources affected by climate changes has aroused enormous attention, since it can further protect wetland resources and provide a scientific basis for decision makers. In this study, wetland changes and its response to climate changes in the TRH region from the early 1990s to 2012 were analyzed by remote sensing (RS) image interpretation and climate change trend analysis. The results showed that wetlands occupied 6.3% of the total land area in 2012, and swamps, streams & rivers and lakes were the dominant wetland types in the TRH region. Since the early 1990s, wetlands have undergone great changes, and total wetland area increased by 260.57 km 2 (1.17%). Lakes, reservoir & ponds took on continuous increasing trend, but swamps, streams & rivers had a continuous decreasing trend. On the other hand, the wetland area in the Yangtze River basin showed an overall increasing trend, while in the Yellow River and Langcang River basins, it decreased in general. The climate turned from Warm-Dry to Warm-Wet. The average temperature and precipitation increased by 0.91 °C and 101.99 mm, respectively, from 1990 to 2012, and the average humidity index ( HI ) increased by 0.06 and showing an upward trend and a shifting of the dividing line towards the northwest in both the areas of semi-humid and semi-arid zone. The correlation analysis of wetland changes with meteorological factors from 1990 to 2012 indicated that the regional humidity differences and the interannual variation trend, caused by the change of precipitation and evaporation, was the main driving factor for the dynamic variation of wetland change in the TRH region. In the general, the increase of HI in the THR region since the 1990s, especially in the western TRH region, contributed to wetland increase continuously. The conclusions of this study will provide some scientific references for the management and protection of wetlands in the TRH region, especially for restoration, reconstruction and conservation of degradation wetland.

Suggested Citation

  • Laga Tong & Xinliang Xu & Ying Fu & Shuang Li, 2014. "Wetland Changes and Their Responses to Climate Change in the “Three-River Headwaters” Region of China since the 1990s," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:7:y:2014:i:4:p:2515-2534:d:35342
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/7/4/2515/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/7/4/2515/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lin Huang & Jiyuan Liu & Quanqin Shao & Ronggao Liu, 2011. "Changing inland lakes responding to climate warming in Northeastern Tibetan Plateau," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 479-502, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrzej Osuch & Ewa Osuch & Stanisław Podsiadłowski & Piotr Rybacki, 2021. "Analysis of Performance of the Wind-Driven Pulverizing Aerator Based on Average Wind Speeds in the Conditions of Góreckie Lake," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-11, May.
    2. Haibo Wang & Mingguo Ma, 2016. "Impacts of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities on the Ecological Restoration of Wetlands in the Arid Regions of China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Ning He & Wenxian Guo & Hongxiang Wang & Long Yu & Siyuan Cheng & Lintong Huang & Xuyang Jiao & Wenxiong Chen & Haotong Zhou, 2023. "Temporal and Spatial Variations in Landscape Habitat Quality under Multiple Land-Use/Land-Cover Scenarios Based on the PLUS-InVEST Model in the Yangtze River Basin, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Chong Jiang & Linbo Zhang, 2015. "Climate Change and Its Impact on the Eco-Environment of the Three-Rivers Headwater Region on the Tibetan Plateau, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-25, September.
    5. Lulu Liu & Wei Cao & Quanqin Shao & Lin Huang & Tian He, 2016. "Characteristics of Land Use/Cover and Macroscopic Ecological Changes in the Headwaters of the Yangtze River and of the Yellow River over the Past 30 Years," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-20, March.
    6. Suning Liu & Haiyun Shi, 2019. "A Recursive Approach to Long-Term Prediction of Monthly Precipitation Using Genetic Programming," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(3), pages 1103-1121, February.
    7. Feng Zhang & Xiasong Hu & Jing Zhang & Chengyi Li & Yupeng Zhang & Xilai Li, 2022. "Change in Alpine Grassland NPP in Response to Climate Variation and Human Activities in the Yellow River Source Zone from 2000 to 2020," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-15, July.
    8. Yihao Zhang & Jianzhong Yan & Xian Cheng & Xinjun He, 2021. "Wetland Changes and Their Relation to Climate Change in the Pumqu Basin, Tibetan Plateau," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-24, March.
    9. Ling-en Wang & Yuxi Zeng & Linsheng Zhong, 2017. "Impact of Climate Change on Tourism on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau: Research Based on a Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-14, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xianglin Huang & Tingbin Zhang & Guihua Yi & Dong He & Xiaobing Zhou & Jingji Li & Xiaojuan Bie & Jiaqing Miao, 2019. "Dynamic Changes of NDVI in the Growing Season of the Tibetan Plateau During the Past 17 Years and Its Response to Climate Change," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-21, September.
    2. Alexander E. Cagle & Alona Armstrong & Giles Exley & Steven M. Grodsky & Jordan Macknick & John Sherwin & Rebecca R. Hernandez, 2020. "The Land Sparing, Water Surface Use Efficiency, and Water Surface Transformation of Floating Photovoltaic Solar Energy Installations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-22, October.
    3. Babak Zolghadr-Asli & Maedeh Enayati & Hamid Reza Pourghasemi & Mojtaba Naghdyzadegan Jahromi & John P. Tiefenbacher, 2021. "A linear/non-linear hybrid time-series model to investigate the depletion of inland water bodies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 10727-10742, July.
    4. Li, Zhouyuan & Liu, Xuehua & Ma, Tianxiao & Kejia, De & Zhou, Qingping & Yao, Bingquan & Niu, Tianlin, 2013. "Retrieval of the surface evapotranspiration patterns in the alpine grassland–wetland ecosystem applying SEBAL model in the source region of the Yellow River, China," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 270(C), pages 64-75.
    5. Najeebullah Khan & Shamsuddin Shahid & Eun-Sung Chung & Sungkon Kim & Rawshan Ali, 2019. "Influence of Surface Water Bodies on the Land Surface Temperature of Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-13, November.
    6. Ruimin Yang & Liping Zhu & Junbo Wang & Jianting Ju & Qingfeng Ma & Falko Turner & Yun Guo, 2017. "Spatiotemporal variations in volume of closed lakes on the Tibetan Plateau and their climatic responses from 1976 to 2013," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 621-633, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:7:y:2014:i:4:p:2515-2534:d:35342. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.