Determination of Landscape Ecological Network of Wetlands in the Yellow River Delta

Many wetlands in the Yellow River Delta have degraded as a result of drainage and conversion for development and other land uses in recent years. To provide information for targeted protection and restoration of degraded wetlands, we explored the landscape ecological network based on the wetland classification data in 2016 by using landscape connectivity index, least-cost distance model, gravity model and digital elevation model hydrological analysis. The landscape ecological network consisted of 10 ecological sources, 35 ecological corridors (13 primary ecological corridors, 22 secondary ecological corridors) with a width of 200 m and 5 ecological nodes. The corridors constructed with patch and patch centroid were different, and the ecological corridors constructed with patch unit show a minimum accumulated resistance. The distribution of ecological sources and nodes was in good agreement with the actual conditions, and the network was reliable. The establishment of this ecological network will play a key role in the improvement of landscape connectivity, optimization of the ecological environment and increase in species diversity in the wetland, which can provide a reference for the optimization and restoration of the overall landscape pattern in this region.