Assessment of macrobenthic community function and ecological quality after reclamation in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Estuary wetland
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Abstract: An ecological optimization project (semi-closed reclamation project) was implemented to control the invasion of Spartina alterniflora, and optimize the habitat of the Chongming Dongtan wetland, in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Estuary. After project implementation, a macrobenthic ecological survey was conducted in a natural tidal flat and a semi-closed reclamation restoration area within the Chongming Dongtan wetland from 2019 to 2020. Compared with historical data before reclamation, findings showed that the groups, numbers, and species diversity of the macrobenthos increased significantly, and the ecological optimization project resulted in good ecological benefits. In addition, compared to the natural tidal flat, the number of collected macrobenthic phyla, and the macrobenthic density and biomass were significantly lower in the restoration area. Furthermore, the biodiversity index and functional redundancy of natural tidal flats were generally higher, indicating that the community composition and function of natural tidal flats were relatively more stable. Even though the species composition differed between a number of restoration areas and natural tidal flats, there was no difference in functional diversity, indicating that the effect of restoring ecological functions in restoration areas was optimal. Among them, the biodiversity and functional redundancy of Site S2 were significantly reduced, and the ecosystem function was extremely unstable. Habitat heterogeneity, vegetation community and decreasing salinity were the main factors that affected the ecological functions of macrobenthos. The ecological quality was also evaluated; the Transects N3 and N4 showed good quality. The overall ecological quality of the restoration area was generally high, but that of Site S2 was poor and that of Site S2E was merely good, which was mainly due to modifications of the ecological function of macrobenthos. It is suggested that reeds mowing and freshwater species release should be adopted in restoration areas to improve the community function and the environmental disturbance resistance of the macrobenthos.
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Key words:
- macrobenthos /
- ecological optimization project /
- semi-closed reclamation /
- community restoration /
- functional diversity /
- ecological health
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Figure 1. Schematic diagram of macrobenthic sampling in Chongming Dongtan wetland from 2019 to 2020. In b, the dark grey area represents the semi-closed reclamation restoration area, and the light grey area represents the natural tidal-flat area. The dots represent the sampling sites; the dash lines represent the Transects N3 and N4.
Figure 2. The species composition (a), number of species (b), density (c) and biomass (d) of macrobenthos in Chongming Dongtan wetland from 2019 to 2020. N3 and N4 are sampling transects; S1, S1A, S2, S2E and S3 are sampling sites. Different letters above the bars indicate significant differences among sites.
Figure 3. The correlation matrix of the macrobenthic diversity index in Chongming Dongtan wetland from 2019 to 2020. The d is the Margalef species richness index; J′, Pielou species evenness index; H', Shannon-Wiener index; Δ+, average taxonomic distinctness; Λ+, variation in taxonomic distinctness; FDQ, functional diversity index; FDis, functional dispersion; and FDQ/H', functional redundancy. Species diversity includes d, J' and H'; taxonomic diversity, Δ+ and Λ+; functional diversity, FDQ and FDis; Functional redundancy, FD/H'.
Table 1. The relationship between AMBI and M-AMBI and ecological quality status/environmental disturbance
Ecological quality/Disturbance classification AMBI M-AMBI High/undisturbed (0, 1.2] >0.77 Good/slightly disturbed (1.2, 3.3] (0.53, 0.77] Moderate/moderately disturbed (3.3, 5.0] (0.38, 0.53] Poor/heavily disturbed (5.0, 6.0] (0.20, 0.38] Bad/extremely disturbed >6.0 (0, 0.20] Note: AMBI is the abbreviation of AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index; and M-AMBI, multivariate AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index. Table 2. The biodiversity index of macrobenthos in the Chongming Dongtan wetland, Shanghai from 2019 to 2020
Transect N3 Transect N4 Site S1 Site S1A Site S2 Site S2E Site S3 DO concentration/(mg·L−1) 7.95±2.72 7.89±4.54 8.40±3.50 10.09±4.92 11.45±3.84 8.63 ± 2.69 10.49 ± 2.61 pH 8.14±0.47 7.88±0.52 8.02±0.49 8.32±0.29 8.36±0.49 7.96±0.75 8.09±0.50 Water temperature/°C 20.72±10.11 20.30±10.04 19.73±7.77 19.82±8.41 20.49±8.13 19.71±8.38 20.52±8.64 Salinity 8.33±1.91b 8.77±2.27b 3.52±2.65a 3.46±2.67a 1.37±2.07a 3.11±1.97a 4.37±1.96a d 2.18±0.59c 1.85±0.59bc 0.94±0.42ab 1.67±0.87bc 0.19±0.26a 1.44±0.60bc 1.23±0.74b J' 0.62±0.15ab 0.65±0.14b 0.70±0.15b 0.82±0.10b 0.18±0.29a 0.60±0.19ab 0.77±0.15b H' 2.36±0.65b 2.31±0.59b 1.62±0.39b 2.54±0.81b 0.31±0.59a 1.86±0.72b 2.01±1.00b Δ+ 88.33±3.73b 83.43±14.02b 84.74±9.01b 82.47±9.55b 48.26±51.67a 85.24±2.70b 90.13±6.84b $\varLambda $+ 437.13±108.99b 362.08±65.10ab 331.40±166.21ab 533.50±414.53b 51.12±121.58a 521.72±113.81b 332.89±234.43ab FDQ 42.56±3.20b 44.97±4.10b 37.81±7.68b 41.88±6.15b 11.99±13.81a 38.92±6.67b 39.23±11.46b FDis 6.42±0.25b 6.60±0.33b 6.01±0.69b 6.39±0.49b 2.20±2.47a 6.15±0.55b 6.09±1.09b FDQ/H' 19.38±6.34 20.86±7.37 24.49±7.44 17.89±5.95 39.50±53.30 25.03±12.74 24.54±14.46 Note: d is the Margalef species richness index; J', Pielou species evenness index; H', Shannon-Wiener index; Δ+, average taxonomic distinctness; $\varLambda $+, variation in taxonomic distinctness; FDQ, functional diversity index; FDis, functional dispersion; and FDQ/H', functional redundancy. Different letters indicate significant differences among sites. Table 3.
AMBI and M-AMBI of 7 habitats in Chongming Dongtan wetland from 2019 to 2020 Sampling
areaAMBI Disturbance classification M-AMBI Ecological
qualityN3 2.210 slightly disturbed 0.83 high N4 1.514 slightly disturbed 0.95 high S1 1.474 slightly disturbed 0.82 high S1A 1.453 slightly disturbed 0.99 high S2 2.863 slightly disturbed 0.35 poor S2E 3.014 slightly disturbed 0.69 good S3 2.543 slightly disturbed 0.77 high Note: AMBI is the abbreviation of AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index; and M-AMBI, multivariate AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index. Table 4.
Comparison of community characteristics before and after reclamation in Chongming Dongtan wetland Variable 2007−2008 2019−2020 High and middle marsh Low marsh Semi-closed restoration area Natural tidal flat area Average number of species 15 19 23 33 Average density/(ind.·m−2) 672.75 1866.5 1304.8 4078.5 d 2.054 2.461 3.063 3.851 J' 0.514 0.584 0.587 0.634 H' 1.946 2.502 2.707 3.195 Note: d is the Margalef species richness index; J', Pielou species evenness index; H', Shannon-Wiener index. -
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