A method for evaluating the longitudinal functional connectivity of a river–lake–marsh system and its application in China

Abstract

The longitudinal functional connectivity of a river-lake-marsh system (RLMS) refers to the actual water-mediated transport of material from upstream to downstream areas along a spatial gradient and is fundamental to understand hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. However, due to a lack of consensus on appropriate data and methods, the quantification of connectivity is still a challenge, especially at the catchment scale. We developed a new method to evaluate longitudinal functional connectivity based on fluxes of materials (water, sediment, and chemicals) along a RLMS.

Environmental flow mechanism and management for river–lake‐marsh systems

“…In this special issue, for the research on hydrological connectivity, Liu, Cui, et al (2020) evaluated the longitudinal connectivity based on fluxes of materials (water, sediment and chemicals) in a typical river–lake‐marsh system. The results indicated that landscape patterns could significantly affect fluxes in the system and should be taken into account.…”

The concept, approach, and future research of hydrological connectivity and its assessment at multiscales

“…Dong et al ( 2021 ) found that the increase in connectivity causes low spatial environmental heterogeneity and biotic homogenization of floodplain wetlands landscapes. Some studies concluded that floodplain wetlands are faced with degradation in drier seasons, causing reduction in river-floodplain connectivity (Liu et al 2020 ). In drier climate, water quality of floodplain wetlands is worse than that in flooding events (Liu et al 2020 ).…”

“…Some studies concluded that floodplain wetlands are faced with degradation in drier seasons, causing reduction in river-floodplain connectivity (Liu et al 2020 ). In drier climate, water quality of floodplain wetlands is worse than that in flooding events (Liu et al 2020 ). This is because surface water level in dry seasons is lower than the median main river stage, which results in the disconnectivity between the rivers and the floodplain wetlands.…”

“…This is because surface water level in dry seasons is lower than the median main river stage, which results in the disconnectivity between the rivers and the floodplain wetlands. The mass exchange, such as nutrients transport, from floodplain wetlands to other surface water sources is extremely impeded (Liu et al 2020 ). Therefore, to sustain the ecological services of the floodplain wetlands, it is crucial to understand how the extent, timing, and duration of hydrological connectivity to the rivers vary with climate changes (Karim et al 2016 ).…”

Investigations of the response mechanism of a karst Interconnected River System Network in Guizhou Province, China

“…The landscape model is a hydrological model, which is created to measure the connectivity (Laliberté & St-Laurent 2020). The connectivity function analysis can assess the connectivity based on hydrology (Luo et al 2018a(Luo et al , 2018bWang et al 2019;Liu et al 2020), while the calculation method varies with the water source. Because of the diversification of research, graph theory is popular, which is a theoretical model that uses an abstract method to assess the relations among research objects (Ishiyama et al 2020;Feng et al 2021).…”