Impacts of Agricultural and Reclamation Practices on Wetlands in the Amur River Basin, Northeastern China

Large-scale land reclamation, agricultural activities, and unsustainable practices in agricultural production have caused a lot of damage to natural wetlands in the Amur River Basin since the foundation of the People's Republic of China. We studied several factors to address the conflicts between agricultural development and natural wetland conservation. We also investigated the effects of canalization, crop planting area, agricultural machinery and pesticides' usage on the wetland environment. In 2010, the total area of natural wetlands was approximately 7.10 x 10(4) km(2); this value was less than half the total area of natural wetlands in 1970. Canalization accompanied by land reclamation was identified as the main cause of the loss of natural wetlands. Binary regression analyses indicated that when the increments of ditches used by the state farms on the Sanjiang Plain increased by 1 km, or when the increment of cultivated land increased by 1 km(2), the amount of natural wetland area lost was 0.227 and 0.557 km(2), respectively. The influences of agricultural activities on wetlands were determined by assessing the main conflicts and providing suggestions to establish a new type of wetland-friendly green agriculture with a view to reduce negative impacts of agriculture on wetlands in the Amur River Basin.