Spatial distribution of cumulative impact on terrestrial ecosystem of the Fildes Peninsula, Antarctica.

Autor: Gao Y; National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, China; Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China., Li R; National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, China., Gao H; National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, China., Hou C; National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, China; Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China., Jin S; National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, China., Ye J; National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, China; Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China., Na G; National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, China; Key Laboratory of Utilization and Conservation for Tropical Marine Bioresources, Ministry of Education, Hainan Tropical Ocean University, Sanya, 572022, China; Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China. Electronic address: gsna@nmemc.org.cn.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of environmental management [J Environ Manage] 2021 Feb 01; Vol. 279, pp. 111735. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Dec 09.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111735
Abstrakt: Antarctica, an area that is devoted to global peace and research, is being challenged by climate change, human activities, and pollution. There have been a number of studies concerning the state of the Antarctic ecological environment. However, a comprehensive and quantitative assessment of the impact of threats on the Antarctica ecological environment is still lacking. In this study, a cumulative impact assessment performed on the basis of expert judgement was used to estimate species-specific differences on the impact of seven threats: climate change, organic and nonorganic pollutants, station construction, power generation, oil spilling, and tourism. The terrestrial area of the Fildes Peninsula was divided into 103 cells using a raster grid of 0.25 km 2 , and cumulative impact assessment was applied to each cell. The analysis results indicated that cumulative impact scores (I C ) ranged from 0 to 39.4, and the cumulative scores were divided into six categories ranging from very low impact (I C  ≤ 7.08) to very high impact (I C  > 20.54). More than half of the terrestrial area (57.3%) experienced "Very Low Impact" or "Low impact" scores. For single factors, climate change was identified as a rapidly growing and significant threat facing the terrestrial ecosystems of Antarctica. In addition, tourism had the greatest impact among all human activities. The analytical process and resulting map indicate that it is necessary to develop international policies on the restriction of tourist activity space and strength the organic pollutant controls for terrestrial ecosystem protection in the Fildes Peninsula, Antarctica.
(Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: