AUTHOR=Yang Xitao , Wen Rushu , Qu Ming , Zhang Chunxia , Luo Jianing , Zhu Weidong , Jiang Tong , Liu Xihui , Liu Xinke 

TITLE=Health assessment of mangrove ecosystem of natural protected areas in Guangdong Province, China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2024.1421794

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2024.1421794

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Multiple factors, including human disturbance and environmental change, have caused a significant global mangrove resource loss. Therefore, the Chinese government has restructured mangrove habitats and restored the ecosystem functionality through establishing naturally protected mangrove areas. Despite efforts spanning several years, over 90% of mangrove forests in China have been now integrated into the natural protected area system, with the health status and influencing factors of mangrove ecosystem remaining a pertinent subject for further exploration. Given the intricacies of mangrove ecosystems with complex nonlinear relationships among evaluation factors, it is imperative to adopt scientific methodologies to assess their health status. To illustrate this, we conducted a mangrove ecosystem health assessment of natural protected areas of Guangdong Province, China. By employing a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method and establishing an index system for mangrove ecosystem health assessment, the results revealed the following findings. (1) Various factors exert differing degrees of influence on mangrove ecosystem health. Notably, the mangrove habitat pattern (weight 47.95 %), bird diversity (weight 20.97 %), mangrove community (weight 14.31 %), water environment (weight 11.76 %), and soil sedimentary environment (weight 5.01 %) were identified. (2) Overall, the mangrove ecosystem within protected areas of Guangdong exhibited unhealthy signs. There were 4 healthy protected areas (20.00%), 4 areas classified as sub-healthy