Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Ecosystem Ecology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1487370
This article is part of the Research Topic Biological Invasions in Aquatic Ecosystems: Detection, Assessment and Countermeasures View all 8 articles

Study on the Structure and Energy Flow of the Salt Marsh Wetland Ecosystem in Liaohe Estuary Based on Ecopath Model

Provisionally accepted
Daowei Yuan Daowei Yuan 1,2Ming Qiu Ming Qiu 3Xushen Zhou Xushen Zhou 4*Yan Zhang Yan Zhang 5*Jianhua Zhao Jianhua Zhao 1,2*
  • 1 National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
  • 2 State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Marine Ecosystem Restoration, Dalian, China
  • 3 Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 4 Administration of Ecology and Environment of Haihe River Basin and Beihai Sea Area, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Tianjin, China
  • 5 Dalian Ocean University, Dalian, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Salt marshes are one of the three blue carbon ecosystems recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, coastal salt marshes in China are facing the risk of degradation. To reveal the status of the salt marsh wetland ecosystem in Liaohe Estuary, an Ecopath model composed of 14 functional groups was constructed based on the 2019 ecological survey data. A comprehensive analysis of the system's food web structure, energy flow processes, and overall ecosystem characteristics was conducted. The results show that the energy flow in the Liaohe Estuary salt marsh wetland ecosystem is mainly distributed in three integrated trophic levels. The utilization rates of trophic levels II and III are low, easily causing blockages in the lower trophic levels of the ecosystem's energy flow. The total system throughput of the Liaohe Estuary salt marsh wetland ecosystem is 49,099.039 t•km²•a⁻¹. The system connectivity index and the system omnivory index are 0.207 and 0.109, respectively. Compared with other wetland systems, the ecosystem has a larger scale, but the overall ecosystem characteristic index reveals lower stability and complexity of the Liaohe Estuary salt marsh wetland system.

    Keywords: Ecopath, isotope, Ecological model, ecosystem, Liaohe Estuary

    Received: 28 Aug 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yuan, Qiu, Zhou, Zhang and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xushen Zhou, Administration of Ecology and Environment of Haihe River Basin and Beihai Sea Area, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Tianjin, China
    Yan Zhang, Dalian Ocean University, Dalian, China
    Jianhua Zhao, National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, Liaoning Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.