Research progress in cold region wetlands, China

摘要

China has some of the most abundant wetland resources in the world. Cold region wetlands cover more than 60% of the total natural wetlands in China and play an indispensable role in global climate regulation, water holding, uptake and emission of greenhouse gases, and biodiversity conservation. Because cold region wetlands are sensitive to climatic and environmental changes, it is important for ecological conservation and environmental management to summarize and analyze current research progress on these specific ecosystems. This paper reviews the focus of present studies on the typical cold region wetlands in the northeast region and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China from several aspects as follows: types and distribution, responses of permafrost to climatic changes, uptake and emission of greenhouse gas, eco-hydrological processes, and vegetation succession. Our conclusions are: global warming has a long-term and serious impact on cold region permafrost; emission of greenhouse gases has great temporal and spatial heterogeneity; and hygrophytes in the cold region wetlands have been generally replaced by xerophytes, although it is still unclear whether the vegetation diversity index has increased or decreased. Based on this review, some key topics for future study are recommended as follows: (1) the response of degeneration of cold region permafrost at various spatial and temporal scales; (2) prediction of wetland degeneration tendency by coupling weather, soil, and hydrological models; (3) evaluation of carbon storage; (4) the actual response mechanisms of greenhouse gases to climatic changes; and (5) development of water requirement calculation methods tailored to the unique ecosystems of cold region wetlands.