中国大陆沿岸造礁石珊瑚适生区及保护空缺分析

Potential suitable habitat and conservation gaps of scleractinia corals along China's Mainland’s coast

为有效开展造礁石珊瑚的保护与珊瑚礁的修复,需要探明其适生空间分布格局和适生环境条件.采用最大熵模型方法,结合空间分析技术首次对中国大陆东南沿海的造礁石珊瑚潜在适生区进行了模拟预测,并定量评估了珊瑚分布与多元环境因子之间的响应关系.结果表明,中国大陆沿岸造礁石珊瑚的分布主要受到降水、海温等环境变量的影响,最适宜的环境区间为年降水量1136~2051mm,降水量变化方差66~83mm、最冷季平均海温18.6~23.3℃、年平均海温20.9~25.8℃.模拟得到的潜在适生区主要分布于海南岛-涠洲岛-雷州半岛沿岸、珠江口-大亚湾、南澳-东山-六鳌沿岸、厦门湾-平潭岛等地,其中最优适生区面积约为138km^2.通过叠加分析比较造礁石珊瑚分布热点区和保护区的空间分布格局,识别出我国大陆沿岸造礁石珊瑚的潜在保护空缺可能主要出现在珠江口-大亚湾和福建南部沿海,以及海南岛周边的临高、陵水等地.

Predicting their potential habitat distribution and suitable environmental conditions is essential to achieve effective conservation and coral reef restoration of scleractinia corals.Here,for the first time,we adopted the Maximum Entropy Model and spatial analysis approach to predict the potential habitat suitability of scleractinia corals along the southeast coast of China's Mainland,as well as quantitatively evaluated the relationships between coral distribution and multiple environmental factors.The results showed that the distribution of scleractinia corals in China was mainly affected by environmental variables such as precipitation and sea surface temperature.The most suitable environmental interval include annual precipitation(between 1136~2051mm),precipitation seasonality(coefficient of variation,66~83mm),mean SST in the coldest season(18.6~23.3℃),and annual mean SST(20.9~25.8℃).The simulated potential suitable areas are mainly distributed along the coasts of Hainan Island-Weizhou Island-Leizhou Peninsula,Pearl River Mouth-Daya Bay,Nan'ao-Dongshan-Liu Au,and Xiamen Bay-Pingtan Island,where the most suitable area is about 138km^2.By comparing the distribution hotspots of scleractinia corals and current marine protected areas,it was identified that the potential conservation gaps may occur at the Pearl River Estuary,Daya Bay and the southern coast of Fujian Province,as well as Lingao and Lingshui around Hainan Island.