Journal
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
Volume 82, Issue -, Pages 381-391Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.06.057
Keywords
Macrobenthos; Functional group; Ecological restoration; Freshwater releases; Yellow river delta; Wetlands
Categories
Funding
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2013CB430402]
- National Science Foundation for Key Program of China [51439001]
- National Key R & D Program of China [2016YFC0502209]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51579012]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2012CXQT02]
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Freshwater releases to restore degraded wetlands are a globally recognized way to maintain the biodiversity and enhance the health of wetland ecosystems. To better understand the efficacy of freshwater releases in the northern part of China's Yellow River Delta Wetlands, we used macrobenthos functional groups in spring (before freshwater releases), summer (during), and autumn (after) as indicators of the ecological responses. We also created abundance-biomass comparison curves and analyzed secondary production of each trophic level to evaluate the magnitude of the disturbance of the macrobenthos community. Abundance, biomass, and biodiversity of macrobenthos functional groups generally improved after the freshwater releases. In contrast with an intertidal (reference) area, the macrobenthos community in the ecological restoration area tended to be fresh-water species. In the ecological restoration area, strong and moderate ecological disturbance of the macrobenthos community was evident during and after freshwater releases because the abundance curve remained above the biomass curve. Secondary production was in the order trophic level III > II congruent to IV in the summer, which indicates fragility of the macrobenthos community. The ecological restoration area had the highest sediment total organic carbon and moisture contents, but the lowest salinity and median particle size, and these differences were statistically significant. Our results suggest that adaptive freshwater releases, including a long-term freshwater release plan that more closely emulates natural flows and increasing the efficiency of freshwater utilization, will be necessary to achieve sustainable management of the wetland's ecosystem and reduce the disturbance caused by the freshwater releases.
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