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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1445906
This article is part of the Research Topic Application of Plants in Wetland Ecological Engineering View all 10 articles

Vegetation and Carbon Sink Response to Water Level Changes in a Seasonal Lake Wetland

Provisionally accepted
Weiyu Huang Weiyu Huang 1Xin Liu Xin Liu 2Lin Tian Lin Tian 1Geng Cui Geng Cui 3Yan Liu Yan Liu 2*
  • 1 Changchun Institute of Technology, Changchun, China
  • 2 Changchun Normal University, Changchun, China
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China

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

    Water level fluctuations are among the main factors affecting the development of wetland vegetation communities, carbon sinks, and ecological processes. Hongze Lake is a typical seasonal lake wetland in the Huaihe River Basin. Its water levels have experienced substantial fluctuations because of climate change, as well as gate and dam regulations. In this study, long-term cloud-free remote sensing images of water body area, net plant productivity (NPP), gross primary productivity (GPP), and Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) of the wetlands of Hongze Lake were obtained from multiple satellites by Google Earth Engine (GEE) from 2006 to 2023. The trends in FVC were analyzed using a combined Theil-Sen estimator and Mann-Kendall (MK) test. Linear regression was employed to analyze the correlation between the area of water bodies and that of different degrees of FVC. Additionally, annual frequencies of various water levels were constructed to explore their association with GPP, NPP, and FVC .The results showed that water level fluctuations significantly influence the spatial and temporal patterns of wetland vegetation cover and carbon sinks, with a significant correlation (P<0.05) between water levels and vegetation distribution. Following extensive restoration efforts, the carbon sink capacity of the Hongze Lake wetland has increased. However, it is essential to consider the carbon sink capacity in areas with low vegetation cover, for the lakeshore zone with a higher inundation frequency and low vegetation cover had a lower carbon sink capacity. These findings provide a scientific basis for the establishment of carbon sink enhancement initiatives, restoration programs, and policies to improve the ecological value of wetland ecosystem conservation areas.

    Keywords: water level, Lake Hongze Llake, gross primary productivity, Net Plant Productivity, Fractional vegetation cover, Google eEarth engine

    Received: 08 Jun 2024; Accepted: 27 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Huang, Liu, Tian, Cui and Liu. 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: Yan Liu, Changchun Normal University, Changchun, China

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