Study on spatio-temporal variation and hydrological connectivity of tidal creek evolution in Yancheng coastal wetlands

Abstract

Tidal creek is an important natural carrier of hydrological connectivity in coastal wetlands, and an important channel for material exchange between sea and land. Based on the remote sensing image data from 1987 to 2020, the spatio-temporal divergence patterns of tidal creek network and its hydrological connectivity were revealed. The results showed that: (1) The morphology of tidal creeks was similar to the "tree-shaped" development, and the tidal creeks at all grades tended to be "short, fragmented and parallelized" during 1987-2020. and the number, density of the tidal creeks showed an increasing trend year by year. (2) The development degree of tidal creek networks showed a trend of gradually increasing from north to south, with the tidal creek development in areas II and V showing the good network development characteristics. (3) The spatial heterogeneity of hydrological connectivity levels of tidal creeks in the study area was obvious, which gradually increased from the north to south, with the best in the southern Area V and the worst in the northern Area I. The results of this study revealed the development process and evolution mechanism of the tidal creek networks in coastal wetlands.

Quantitative Analysis of Tidal Creek Evolution and Vegetation Variation in Silting Muddy Flats on the Yellow Sea

“…Remote sensing satellite image data have been increasingly useful for studying the relationship between vegetation and tidal creeks, as well as for establishing morphological characteristic indices in the presence of hydrological connectivity [11]. Recent studies suggested that the tidal gullies and wetland vegetation are interrelated [12,13]. The relationship between tidal creeks and vegetation distribution pattern in the Yangtze River delta, Yancheng nature reserve, and Yellow River delta has been established by examining the drainage efficiency of vegetation-free and vegetation-covered tidal creek networks, the evolution of tidal creeks, and the expansion of Spartina alterniflora [14][15][16].…”

Process–Based Identification of Key Tidal Creeks Influenced by Reclamation Activities

“…Indices and simple measures have been used to represent the degree of connectivity of tidal creeks in the presence of reclamation activities. Indices representing the connectivity of tidal creeks include structural indices based on α, β, and γ [31,32]. Reclamation activities have been summarized by using rough measures, such as the population density or the area of reclamation in a given region [13], in light of human activities [15].…”