Kunshan Bao

The Guangdong Haifeng Coastal Wetlands (Ramsar Site No. 1727) in Shanwei City are a critical habitat for migratory birds, but the long-term evolution and driving mechanisms of ecological vulnerability under rapid urbanization remain insufficiently understood. In particular, few studies have quantitatively characterized the temporal shifts in the relative roles of anthropogenic pressures and conservation policies over decadal scales. This study developed a landscape pattern-based ecological vulnerability assessment model integrating spatial autocorrelation, Geodetector, the PLUS model, and spatial overlay analysis to diagnose the dynamics and driving mechanisms of the wetlands from 1980 to 2018. The results showed that farmland and woodland dominated Shanwei City, while water bodies consistently dominated the Haifeng Wetlands. Ecological vulnerability exhibited significant spatial heterogeneity, with levels higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast. Forest and water expansion overlapped with vulnerability reduction, whereas built-up and farmland expansion matched increases in vulnerability. Land-use intensity, elevation, and mean annual temperature were identified as the primary drivers. The drivers of built-up land expansion shifted from population-related pressures during 1980–2000 to stronger policy regulation effects after 2000, indicating a transition in human–land interactions. Conservation policies, including nature reserve establishment and Ramsar designation, provided important institutional support for ecological management. These findings highlight the importance of integrating long-term land-use dynamics with natural, socioeconomic and policy contexts to improve the understanding and management of coastal wetlands vulnerability under rapid urbanization.

Tracing footprint and risk of microplastics and microfibers is crucial to managing plastic and fiber waste. We identified microfibers from microplastics, quantitatively apportioned the sources of microplastics and microplastics in 102 lakes across China by field work, and developed a novel index (IMRI) to assess the risk based on human footprint and the abundance, size, shape, color, and residual monomers and chemical additives. The abundance in the sediments of these lakes ranged from 0.3 to 66.7 items g^-1. Microfibers and fiber-shaped microplastics accounted for 45% and 32% of the abundance. The risk levels assessed by IMRI indicated that microplastics and microfibers in the sediments of 33.3%, 28.4%, 27.5%, and 9.8% of the lakes had moderate, extremely high, high, and low risk, respectively, which was more consistent with the real situation of Chinese lakes compared with PLI, PHI, and RI and independent of background abundance. Secondary and tertiary industry-related activities and aquaculture activities contributed 64% and 36% to the abundance, posing extremely high risk and high risk, respectively. Artificial cellulosic microfibers mainly derived from aquaculture activities contributed 61% to the risk due to the residual toxic chemical additives. Residual monomers and chemical additives and size contributed 42.7% and 42.3% to the risk.

Editorial: Paleolimnology: insights from sedimentary archives