Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data
Coral reefs are ecosystems that are highly vulnerable to external environmental impacts, including changes associated with ocean acidification and global warming. Assessing the vulnerability of coral reef growth environments over large areas of the sea is a difficult and complex process, as it is in...
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 2024-03-03T08:47:40+00:00 Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data Ma, Yuan Jiang, Changbo Li, Shanshan Liu, Yizhuang Wen, Xiaofeng Long, Yuannan Yuan, Shuai Kang, Yuantai Wang, Yongjie Wu, Ruixuan 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution volume 11 ISSN 2296-701X Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2023 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 2024-02-03T23:18:24Z Coral reefs are ecosystems that are highly vulnerable to external environmental impacts, including changes associated with ocean acidification and global warming. Assessing the vulnerability of coral reef growth environments over large areas of the sea is a difficult and complex process, as it is influenced by many variables. There are few studies on environmental vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea. It is therefore particularly important to understand the environmental sensitivity of corals and how coral communities respond to changes in climate-related environmental variables. In this study, indicators were selected mainly from natural environmental factors that hinder the development of coral reefs. The sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), wind velocity (WV) and direction, sea level height (SL), ocean currents (OC), and chlorophyll concentration (Chl) of coral reefs in South China Sea Island were integrated to calculate the coral reef environmental vulnerability region. In a GIS environment, Spatial Principal Component Analysis (SPCA) was used to develop sensitivity models and evaluate the ecological vulnerability of coral reefs. Based on the Environmental vulnerability indicator (EVI) values, the study area was classified as 5 grades of ecological vulnerability: Potential (0.000–0.577), Light (0.577–0.780), Medium (0.780–0.886), Heavy (0.886–0.993) and Very Heavy (0.993–1.131). Sensitivity models identified regional gradients of environmental stress and found that some coral reefs in western Malaysia and southwestern Philippines have higher vulnerability. Meanwhile, the study found that the reefs of Paracel Islands and Macclesfield Bank areas of medium vulnerability. Future use of high-precision data from long time series will allow better estimates of site-specific vulnerability and allow for the precise establishment of marine protected areas so that the ecological diversity of coral reefs can be sustained. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification Frontiers (Publisher) Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11 |
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Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
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Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Ma, Yuan Jiang, Changbo Li, Shanshan Liu, Yizhuang Wen, Xiaofeng Long, Yuannan Yuan, Shuai Kang, Yuantai Wang, Yongjie Wu, Ruixuan Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data |
topic_facet |
Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Coral reefs are ecosystems that are highly vulnerable to external environmental impacts, including changes associated with ocean acidification and global warming. Assessing the vulnerability of coral reef growth environments over large areas of the sea is a difficult and complex process, as it is influenced by many variables. There are few studies on environmental vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea. It is therefore particularly important to understand the environmental sensitivity of corals and how coral communities respond to changes in climate-related environmental variables. In this study, indicators were selected mainly from natural environmental factors that hinder the development of coral reefs. The sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), wind velocity (WV) and direction, sea level height (SL), ocean currents (OC), and chlorophyll concentration (Chl) of coral reefs in South China Sea Island were integrated to calculate the coral reef environmental vulnerability region. In a GIS environment, Spatial Principal Component Analysis (SPCA) was used to develop sensitivity models and evaluate the ecological vulnerability of coral reefs. Based on the Environmental vulnerability indicator (EVI) values, the study area was classified as 5 grades of ecological vulnerability: Potential (0.000–0.577), Light (0.577–0.780), Medium (0.780–0.886), Heavy (0.886–0.993) and Very Heavy (0.993–1.131). Sensitivity models identified regional gradients of environmental stress and found that some coral reefs in western Malaysia and southwestern Philippines have higher vulnerability. Meanwhile, the study found that the reefs of Paracel Islands and Macclesfield Bank areas of medium vulnerability. Future use of high-precision data from long time series will allow better estimates of site-specific vulnerability and allow for the precise establishment of marine protected areas so that the ecological diversity of coral reefs can be sustained. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ma, Yuan Jiang, Changbo Li, Shanshan Liu, Yizhuang Wen, Xiaofeng Long, Yuannan Yuan, Shuai Kang, Yuantai Wang, Yongjie Wu, Ruixuan |
author_facet |
Ma, Yuan Jiang, Changbo Li, Shanshan Liu, Yizhuang Wen, Xiaofeng Long, Yuannan Yuan, Shuai Kang, Yuantai Wang, Yongjie Wu, Ruixuan |
author_sort |
Ma, Yuan |
title |
Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data |
title_short |
Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data |
title_full |
Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data |
title_fullStr |
Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data |
title_sort |
ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the south china sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961/full |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_source |
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution volume 11 ISSN 2296-701X |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
11 |
_version_ |
1792503901867474944 |