Landscape fragmentation and carbon storage dynamics under co-evolving governance in the Shaanxi Yellow River wetland
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Wetland sustainability emerges from coupled interactions among governance, hydrology, land-use change, landscape structure and ecosystem services. Guided by Evolutionary Governance Theory, this study examines their co-evolution in the Shaanxi Yellow River Wetland from 1992 to 2023. Governance trajectories, hydrological dynamics and human land-use processes are treated as interacting antecedent conditions expressed through land use/land cover transitions, while multidimensional landscape fragmentation and land use/land cover-based estimated carbon storage are assessed as complementary structural and functional outcomes. Descriptive policy-document frequency and milestone analyses, multi-source remote sensing, the Integrated Landscape Fragmentation Index, InVEST carbon modelling, spatial autocorrelation, and overlay analysis were integrated to examine the relationships between governance evolution, landscape fragmentation and carbon storage. Estimated total carbon storage increased by 34.64%. Fragmentation, however, followed a fluctuating trajectory, intensifying through 2010, temporarily easing in 2020 and increasing again by 2023, with persistent spatial hotspots. High estimated carbon storage repeatedly co-occurred with high fragmentation, indicating heterogeneous pattern–function alignment and mismatch rather than uniform ecological recovery. Interpreted contextually, these trajectories show that more frequent policy issuance and increasing legal integration coexisted with hydrological variability, cropland transitions, aquaculture expansion and path-dependent land-use pressures. Carbon-storage gains alone therefore cannot indicate landscape recovery. Adaptive wetland governance should align restoration with hydrological processes, landscape configuration and multiple ecosystem functions.
Source: Scientific Reports
Institutions: Weinan Normal University, National University of Malaysia
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Life on land
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
OpenAlex ID: W7221528662