Regime shifts and resilience in China’s coastal ecosystems

Abstract

Regime shift often results in large, abrupt, and persistent changes in the provision of ecosystem services and can therefore have significant impacts on human wellbeing. Understanding regime shifts has profound implications for ecosystem recovery and management. China's coastal ecosystems have experienced substantial deterioration within the past decades, at a scale and speed the world has never seen before. Yet, information about this coastal ecosystem change from a dynamics perspective is quite limited. In this review, I synthesize existing information on coastal ecosystem regime shifts in China and discuss their interactions and cascading effects. The accumulation of regime shifts in China's coastal ecosystems suggests that the desired system resilience has been profoundly eroded, increasing the potential of abrupt shifts to undesirable states at a larger scale, especially given multiple escalating pressures. Policy and management strategies need to incorporate resilience approaches in order to cope with future challenges and avoid major losses in China's coastal ecosystem services.

A significant loop of lake sedimentation state links catchment eco‐surroundings and lake biogenic regime shifts

“…When shifting dates were also taken into consideration, it was discovered that the alteration in MARs was first detected (1944), then in the C : N ratio (1961), and finally in PC1 and PC2 (1972,1964) from 1940 to 1980. The temporal relationship in MAR, C : N ratio, and PC1 supported the cascading relationship in lakes where sedimentation state switching and organic matter input changing triggered biogenic regime shifts in lake sediments (Randsalu-Wendrup et al 2016;Zhang 2016). Material input patterns and sediment deposition in large lakes can alter physical, chemical, and biological processes in lake sediments, such as hydrodynamic material sorting (Tesi et al 2016), reoccurring deposition loops (Walling and He 1998), deposited compaction (Oguri et al 2022), and mineralization and microbial degradation in profile depth and oxygen limitations (Burdige 2007;Bao et al 2021).…”

“…Land‐use changes characterized by the transformation of a natural location into cropland or urbanized areas led to intensifying soil erosion and further resulted in lake sedimentation rates increasing (Baud et al 2021; Wynants et al 2021). For example, intensive human activities largely accounted for the relatively higher sedimentation rates in the East Plain of subtropical China, as a large portion of the whole national agricultural production and urban construction after 1950 (Zhang 2016; Wang et al 2018). Hydrological alterations induced by dam construction and embankment also affected the lake sediment flux (Meißner et al 2018; Yang et al 2023).…”

China at a Crossroads: An Analysis of China's Changing Seafood Production and Consumption

“…Their expansion is not limited by feed development, but instead by competition for space with other industries, and is highly affected by degraded water quality. Current trends already indicate increasingly degraded coastal water quality, 61,77 but the stated ambition to strengthen pollution regulation could change this trajectory. Suitable space and access to freshwater and healthy environments are thus two key factors that could limit expansion of aquaculture on land and along coasts.…”

Predicting ecosystem shift in a Salt Lake by using remote sensing indicators and spatial statistics methods (case study: Lake Urmia basin)

“…Previous studies have used RS and interpretation of satellite imagery especially MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) images to monitor ecosystem status and its resilience after facing a stress [21][22][23]. Here, Images of a particular month of the years (July) were imployed.…”