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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a9bb910164014fca948d2a72602de33e 2023-10-09T21:54:57+02:00 Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data Yuan Ma Changbo Jiang Shanshan Li Yizhuang Liu Xiaofeng Wen Yuannan Long Shuai Yuan Yuantai Kang Yongjie Wang Ruixuan Wu 2023-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 https://doaj.org/article/a9bb910164014fca948d2a72602de33e EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-701X 2296-701X doi:10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 https://doaj.org/article/a9bb910164014fca948d2a72602de33e Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Vol 11 (2023) climate change coral reef vulnerability model re-analysis of data RS and GIS coral reef Evolution QH359-425 Ecology QH540-549.5 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 2023-09-24T00:35:37Z 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 Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
climate change coral reef vulnerability model re-analysis of data RS and GIS coral reef Evolution QH359-425 Ecology QH540-549.5 |
spellingShingle |
climate change coral reef vulnerability model re-analysis of data RS and GIS coral reef Evolution QH359-425 Ecology QH540-549.5 Yuan Ma Changbo Jiang Shanshan Li Yizhuang Liu Xiaofeng Wen Yuannan Long Shuai Yuan Yuantai Kang Yongjie Wang Ruixuan Wu Ecological vulnerability assessment of coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea based on remote sensing and reanalysis data |
topic_facet |
climate change coral reef vulnerability model re-analysis of data RS and GIS coral reef Evolution QH359-425 Ecology QH540-549.5 |
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 |
Yuan Ma Changbo Jiang Shanshan Li Yizhuang Liu Xiaofeng Wen Yuannan Long Shuai Yuan Yuantai Kang Yongjie Wang Ruixuan Wu |
author_facet |
Yuan Ma Changbo Jiang Shanshan Li Yizhuang Liu Xiaofeng Wen Yuannan Long Shuai Yuan Yuantai Kang Yongjie Wang Ruixuan Wu |
author_sort |
Yuan Ma |
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 S.A. |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 https://doaj.org/article/a9bb910164014fca948d2a72602de33e |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_source |
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Vol 11 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-701X 2296-701X doi:10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 https://doaj.org/article/a9bb910164014fca948d2a72602de33e |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1066961 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
11 |
_version_ |
1779318705989091328 |