Biomass,species composition and diversity of benthic diatoms in mangroves of the Houyu Bay,China

The biomass, species composition and diversity of benthic diatom assemblages in mud-flat soils in Kandelia candel (L.) Druce communities with and without vegetation were studied seasonally at the Houyu Bay in Fuding City, Fujian Province, China. A total of 103 taxa were identified (including varieties). Eighty-four taxa were found in the mud-flat with vegetation and 74 taxa in the mud-flat without vegetation, while the biomass was large in January and April and decreased from July to October. The most abundant species in the mud-flat with vegetation are Nitzschia cocconeiformis, Gyrosigma scalproides and N. fasciculata, compared with G. scalproides and N. obtusa var. scalpelliformis in the mud-flat without vegetation. High H' values at 2 sites during all seasons suggest that diatom assemblages in the sediments of the Houyu Bay represent an original environment. Multi-dimensional scaling of diatom assemblages from mud-flats with and without vegetation shows that a slight seasonal change and only a single association occur in the mangroves.

Comparison of Meiofaunal Abundance in Two Mangrove Wetlands in Tong'an Bay, Xiamen, China

To compare meiofaunal community in the two mangrove wetlands in Tong＇an Bay, Xiamen, China, and probe the response of meiofauna to high organic matter, sampling was carried out in Fenglin and Xiang＇an mangrove wetlands in the bay. The results showed that the Ne/Co ratio （nematode to benthic copepod） and organic matter in Fenglin mangrove wetland were higher than those in Xiang＇an mangrove wetland. The meiofaunal abundance in Fenglin mangrove was all lower than that in Xiang＇an mangrove wetland in summer, autumn and spring, while the meiofaunal abundance in Fenglin mangrove was higher than that in Xiang＇an mangrove wetland in winter. Two-way ANOVA results showed that the meiofaunal abundance and nematode abundance were significantly different between regions, seasons and regionxseason. With all the results in the present study, we confirmed that the positive response of meiofaunal and nematode abundance were only detected for medium organic matter contents according to the Xiang＇an wetland＇s level, and that the distribution of meiofaunal abundance would be influenced by sand content. Higher copepod abundance and lower N/C value usually suggest better environmental quality.

Secondary Production of Macrobenthos in Mangrove Area of Tong'an Bay,China

Studies on secondary production lead to a better understanding of the functions of the macrobenthic ecosystem.Basedon the macrobenthic data obtained at 6 sampling stations from April 2006 to January 2007,Brey's(1990)empirical formula wasapplied to calculate the secondary production of macrobenthos in the mangrove area of Tong'an Bay.The results showed that themean annual secondary production of macrobenthos was 13.24 gAFDWm-2-a-1.The mean secondary production in the mangrovehabitat was 12.22 gAFDWm-2-a-1,lower than that in the non-mangrove habitat,which was 15.29 gAFDWm-2-a-1.Two possible rea-sons existed for this difference.First,mollusk and crustacean,which contribute more to the secondary production,probably benefitfrom longer inundation period in the non-mangrove habitat.Second,the higher organic matter in the mangrove habitat results in hy-poxia in the bottom sediment,which may decrease the secondary production.The annual mean production-to-biomass(P/B)ratio inTong'an Bay was 1.17,with a ratio of 1.27 in the mangrove habitat and 0.96 in the non-mangrove habitat,which was coincident withthe much higher density of Limnodriloides sp.and Corophium sp.in the mangrove habitat than in the non-mangrove habitat.Themaximum secondary production and P/B ratio of macrobenthos both appeared at sampling station FL2 in April,2006(namelyApril-FL2)with values of 31.38 gAFDWm-2-a-1and 2.20,respectively.The macrobenthic secondary production in Tong'an Bay islower than those in other intertidal studies except that in Haitan Strait,the reason being the different sediment properties.The P/Bratio in Tong'an Bay was the lowest due to the high proportion of crustaceans in the macrobenthic community.

Mangrove forest degradation indicated by mangrove-derived organic matter in the Qinzhou Bay,Guangxi,China,and its response to the Asian monsoon during the Holocene climatic optimum

The response of mangrove ecosystems to the Asian monsoon in the future global warming can be understood by reconstructing the development of mangrove forests during the Holocene climatic optimum（HCO）, using proxies preserved in coastal sediments. The total organic matter in sediments of a segmented core, with calibrated age ranges between 5.6 and 7.7 cal. ka BP and corresponding to the HCO, from the Qinzhou Bay in Guangxi, China, is quantitatively partitioned into three end-members according to their sources： mangrove-derived, terrigenous,and marine phytoplanktonic, using a three-end-member model depicted by organic carbon isotope（δ13Corg） and the molar ratio of total organic carbon to total nitrogen（C/N）. The percentage of mangrove-derived organic matter（MOM） contribution is used as a proxy for mangrove development. Three visible drops in MOM contribution occurred at ca. 7.3, ca. 6.9, and ca. 6.2 cal. ka BP, respectively, are recognized against a relatively stable and higher MOM contribution level, indicating that three distinct mangrove forest degradations occurred in the Qinzhou Bay during the HCO. The three mangrove forest degradations approximately correspond to the time of the strengthened/weakened Asian winter/summer monsoon. This indicates that even during a period favorable for the mangrove development, such as the HCO, climatic extremes, such as cold and dry events driven by the strengthened/weakened Asian winter/summer monsoon, can trigger the degradation of mangrove forests.

The sub-fossils of leaf fragments in sediments as an indicator of mangrove development in the Yingluo Bay, Guangxi, Southwest China over the last 130 years

Located in the intertidal zone of the tropical and subtropical coasts, mangrove forests are an important ecosystem in the global carbon cycle and serve as a protector of local seashores. Under the double impacts of climate change,especially sea-level rise, and human activity, mangrove forests around the world have faced degradation, against which the reconstruction of the historical development of mangrove forests using an effective indicator has been regarded as a necessary strategy for designing a predictable model. As the primary product of mangrove forest, it is reasonable that the content of leaf fragments of mangrove(CLFM) buried in sediments in the form of sub-fossils potentially has the same indicative function for the development of mangrove forests as that of widely-used mangrove pollen. In this study, the leaf fragments of mangrove in two sediment cores(YLW02 and YLW03) drilled in the Yingluo Bay in Guangxi, Southwest China were picked out and weighted for calculation of CLFM, which was used as an indicator of mangrove development after examination of parallelism and a statistical correlation of the CLFM with the concentration of mangrove pollen. The results clearly show that the vertical distribution of the CLFM for the core taken from the landward margin of mangrove forests(YLW03) only parallels that of the local mangrove species(Rhizophora. stylosa) with a significantly positive correlation(R=0.56, P=0.05), while the vertical distribution of the CLFM for the core taken from the interface between seaward margin of mangrove forest and the trunk of tidal creeks of the bay(YLW02) parallels the summed concentration of mangrove pollen(SCMP) with a more positive correlation than that of YLW03(R=0.85, P=0.01), indicating that the trunk outlet of tidal creeks must have been the site where mangrove production gathered from the overall forest rather than from local production. The variations in the CLFM of both cores indicate that overall the mangrove forests in the Yingluo Bay have increasingly flourished over the last 130 years except for the interval of 1940–1950 AD in response to an increase in air temperature and decrease in rainfall, which would have resulted in an increase in seawater salinity;while the coupled extreme increases in air temperature and in rainfall in summer, which would have resulted in extreme decreases in seawater salinity, would be responsible for the relative degradation of mangrove forests in the interval of 1940–1950 AD.

Impact Analysis of Coastal Engineering Projects on Mangrove Wetland Area Change with Remote Sensing

In the past decades, two large scale coastal engineering projects have been carried out in the Deep Bay surrounded by Shenzhen City and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. One project is Shenzhen River channel regulation and the other is the sea reclamation along the seashore on the Shenzhen side. The two projects are very close to the two national nature reserves, specifically Futian in Shenzhen and Mai Po in Hong Kong, which are important wetland ecosystems worldwide. This paper aims to identify and monitor the mangrove wetland changes with time series of Landsat Thematic Mapper images pre and post to the two engineering projects being launched. Coupled analysis of the image interpretation results and tidal data acquired at the same time in the context of the two works reveals that the mangrove wetland area has increased from year 1989 to 1994, and has changed little from year 1994 to 2002. Binary coding is applied to reveal the distribution image of mangrove at each phase, and the coding image shows that the construction of the two coastal engineering projects has caused frequent changes in mangrove spatial distribution. The study also shows that the change is not significant regarding to the precision of the method and the natural evolution of mangrove wetland, and the projects do not cause apparently influences upon the two national mangrove conservation zones at least for the research time period.

Combining Decision Trees with Angle Indices to Identify Mangrove Forest at Shenzhen Bay, China

Mangroves are woody plant communities in the intertidal zone of tropical and subtropical coasts that play an important role in these zones. The infrared wave band is one of the key bands in the remote sensing identification of mangrove forest, and ALI（advanced land imagery） has a large number of infrared bands. Two angle indices were proposed based on liquid water absorption at band 5p and band 5 of EO-1 ALI, denoted as β1.25 and β1.65 respectively. A decision tree method was adopted to identify mangrove forest using remote sensing techniques for β1.25–β1.65 and NDVI（normalized difference vegetation index） for EO-1 ALI imagery acquired at Shenzhen Bay. The results showed that the reflectance of mangrove forests at band 5p and band 5 was significantly lower than that of terrestrial vegetation due to the characteristics of coastal wetlands of mangrove forests. This resulted in a greater β1.25–β1.65 value for mangrove forest than terrestrial vegetation. The decision tree method using β1.25–β1.65 and NDVI effectively identifies mangrove forest from other land cover categories. The misclassification and leakage rates were 4.29% and 5.11% respectively. ALI sensors with many infrared bands could play an important role in discriminating mangrove forest.

“中信红树湾”生态景观水池水质维护系统的设计

为探寻人工湖的水质维护问题,以"中信红树湾"生态景观水池为研究对象,着重探讨了水质维护中的主要工艺设计要点,以期为典型人工湖水质维护系统的设计提供参考。