Ecological restoration trajectory of the Taitema Lake wetland in arid northwest China: A 36-year wetland health assessment using Landsat time series data

作者：J. Zhang, Junli Li, Anming Bao, Amaury Frankl, Haoyu Wang, Jie Bai, Zhanfeng Shen, Longhui Li, Philippe De Maeyer, Tim Van de Voorde · 发表于：Ecological Indicators · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.111956 · 被引用次数：19 · 研究领域：Land Use and Ecosystem Services、Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics、Environmental Changes in China

The Taitema Lake wetland in the lower reaches of the Tarim River (northwest China) is sensitive to hydrological changes and provides necessary ecosystem functions for biodiversity conservation. Monitoring and evaluating the long-term dynamics of the Taitema Lake wetland is essential for conserving and restoring regional wetland ecosystems. This paper used a dense time series of Landsat images from 1986 to 2021 to map the Taitema Lake wetlands. It analyzed the annual and seasonal variations of the wetlands by ten ecological indicators, which include area extent, vegetation, hydrology, and landscape features. A systematic assessment of the ecological quality of the wetlands over the past 36 years, along with their influencing factors, was conducted from the perspective of wetland health. The results showed that (1) the recovered water areas and the wetlands showed a clear trend of ecological restoration since 2000, accompanied by an increased fragmentation. The total wetland area increased from 69.95 km2 in 1986 to 1164.47 km2 in 2021, with a 15.6-fold increase, and the vegetation area increased twentyfold to 639.84 km2. (2) The wetness in the core zone increased consistently across seasons, coupled with a simultaneous vegetation expansion surrounding the core zone. The areas with increasing wetness levels account for 48 % during winter and spring, and the areas with vegetation expansion account for 81 % and 72 % in summer and autumn, respectively. (3) The wetland ecological he...