ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coastal Ocean Processes
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1578892
Study on spatial distribution characteristics of marine habitat in the Beibu Gulf based on GIS and existing environmental and vegetation data
Provisionally accepted
- National Marine Data and Information Service, China Oceanic Information Network, Tianjin, China
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Marine habitat mapping serves as a critical tool for ecosystem-based management and scientific research. This study reviews the environmental characteristics of the Beibu Gulf and proposes a habitat classification system that integrates biological zones, substrate and vegetation, based on multi-disciplinary data (including bathymetry, optics remote sensing, geomorphology, and biology surveys) combined with GIS techniques to produce detailed habitat maps for analyzing spatial habitat distribution. A total of 19 habitat types were identified, comprising 8 intertidal, 5 infralittoral, 5 circalittoral and 1 deep circalittoral habitats. The most dominant habitats were deep circalittoral mud (55%), circalittoral mud (19%) and infralittoral mud (14%), whereas littoral mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass each accounted for less than 1%. Map confidence was generally moderate, with lower accuracy observed at the boundaries between biological zones and high confidence in the littoral zones. These findings provide a comprehensive detailed base map that supports support marine monitoring, scientific research, ecological conservation, and regional planning, highlighting the significant application potential of habitat mapping in coastal and marine management.
Keywords: Marine habitat spatial distribution, marine habitat mapping, Marine habitat classification, biological zone, classified substrate, classified vegetation
Received: 18 Feb 2025; Accepted: 13 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Haiyan, Tao, Liu, Lu, Kang, Zuo, Yang, Xu, Liu and ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wh Lu, National Marine Data and Information Service, China Oceanic Information Network, Tianjin, China
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