PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 56: Aquatic Ecology: Communities
Tuesday, August 9, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 513 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Study on wetland perturbation factors and ecosystem feedback on the Songnen plain in China.
Ming, Jiang1, Xianguo, Lu2, 1 Northeast Institute of Geography and Agriculture Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin Province, P.R. China2 Northeast Institute of Geography and Agriculture Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin Province, P.R. China
ABSTRACT- Songnen plain is located in northeastern China, which is the fragile ecotone of semi-humid to semi-arid, large area salina wetlands. Many perturbation factors act on wetlands of the Songnen plain, including climate, fire, project, mining, grazing and exploration of crude oil et al. The temperature of Songnen plain revealed an increasing trend and the precipitation revealed a decreasing trend by analyzing atmospheric data of Songnen plain from 1950 to 2000. Fire occurred occasionally and brought about severe influence on the ecosystem of Songnen plain, especially to the Zhalong Nature Reserve in the 2001. Because of the need of agriculture, wetlands were cultivated and hydraulic projects were built; at the same time over-grazing occurred in most of the wetlands. The exploration of crude oil in the Momoge Reserve had a severe influence on the protection of value bird and resulted the environment contamination. Moderate perturbation can make the wetland ecosystem develop better, but excessive perturbation will make the ecosystem collapse. With the complex action of perturbation factors, the structure and functions of wetland ecosystem have been changed greatly. Now, half of the total wetland area on the Songnen plain has been lost, the area of lakes and ponds dwindled into 30 percent, Fragmentation of wetland landscape became more severe. The loss of biodiversity is obvious, soil salinization is aggravated; Contamination of water quality occurs in most wetlands, and the regulating function of wetlands becomes lower. Analyzing perturbation factors and understanding their action process and mechanism will have far-reaching influence on utilization, protection and restoration of wetlands.
Key words: Wetland ecosystem, perturbation factors, function, Songnen plain