Exploring Cumulative Vulnerability of Mangrove Forests to Intensive Coastal Anthropogenic Threats

Abstract

Mangrove forests, as the most productive coastal ecosystems in tropical and subtropical regions, provide essential ecosystem services to coastal communities. However, intensive coastal anthropogenic threats have resulted in a dramatic decline in mangrove coverage throughout many developing regions. Therefore, it is urgent to investigate the cumulative vulnerability of mangroves to these anthropogenic threats. Here, we used geospatial datasets and the “exposure–sensitivity–resilience” conceptual framework to evaluate spatial vulnerability of mangroves in mainland China in 2020. We found that nearly 68% of mangrove areas in mainland China were identified with medium to high vulnerability. Land-based pollution and coastal aquaculture expansion were the main threats leading to high vulnerability in the whole study area, but the principal drivers of mangrove vulnerability at local scale were various. The vulnerability hotspots induced by pollution and aquaculture were mostly located in Guangdong and Fujian Province, and those regions exposed to sea-level rise were concentrated in Hainan Province. Our study provides the first dataset of spatially explicit-based solution for reducing mangrove vulnerability to intensive coastal anthropogenic threats on a national scale. The spatial distribution of principal vulnerability drivers could provide a guideline for mangrove conservation and coastal-ecosystem-based management.