The Yangtze River estuary is an important ecoregion. However, Spartina alterniflora, native toNorth America, was introduced to the estuary in the 1990s through both natural dispersaland humans and now it is a dominant species in the estuarine ecosystems, with its invasionsleading to multiple consequences to the estuary. S. alterniflora had great competitiveeffects on native species, including Scirpus mariqueter and Phragmites australis, and couldpotentially exclude the natives locally. The presence of S. alterniflora had little influenceon the total density of soil nematodes and macrobenthonic invertebrates, but significantlyaltered the structure of trophic functional groups of nematode and macrobenthonic invertebratecommunities. The conversion ofmudflats to Spartina meadows had significant effectson birds of Charadriidae and Scolopacidae, which might be attributable to the reductionof food resources and the physical alterations of habitats for shorebirds. S. alterniflora invasionsincreased the primary productivity of the invaded ecosystems, and altered carbonand nitrogen cycling processes. Our studies focused mainly on the effects of S. alterniflorainvasions on the structure of native ecosystems; thus further studies are clearly needed toinvestigate how ecosystem functioning is affected by the modification of the structure ofestuarine ecosystems by S. alterniflora invasions.

Horizontal spatial patterns of chlorophyll a in Meiziya Reservoir, Hubei Province, China were analyzed once each month during May, June and July 1997. Two geostatistical techniques, semivariance and fractal analysis, were used to determine variation in chlorophyll a over the whole study area (isotropic) and in different directions (anisotropic). Both techniques provided useful information for detecting and assessing spatial pattern changes of chlorophyll a in freshwater environments. Based on our case study, the distribution of chlorophyll a shifted from aggregated to random distribution in the case of small rainfall event, and then returned to the aggregated distribution after a large rainfall event. On the other hand, the distribution of chlorophyll a became more heterogeneous or random in the direction of water flow (S-N direction) when rainfall events occurred, which was enhanced by rainfall intensity. In contrast, the influence of water flow on the spatial patterns was weak in the E-W direction, and thus the distribution of chlorophyll a remained aggregate with a moderate spatial heterogeneity.

Chongming Island is the world’s largest alluvial island. Its coastal wetland and tidal flats provide many important ecological services including buffers against tidal surges and staging areas for migratory birds. Due to its extraordinary resources, scenic qualities, and its proximity to the city of Shanghai 45km away, the island is also an attractive tourist destination, and it supports important agricultural and fisheries economies. Yet, large-scale land reclamation projects that are severely affecting these ecosystems have been implemented. In this paper, we report an investigation of changes in land use and ecosystem services on Dongtan (East Beach of Chongming Island) between 1990 and 2000. We used three LANDSAT TM and/or ETM data sets to estimate changes in the size of five land-cover/land-use categories, and we also used previously published value coefficients to estimate changes in the value of ecosystem services delivered by eachland category. Finally, we ranked the contribution of various ecosystem functions to the overall value of the ecosystem services. We determined that the total value of ecosystem services in Dongtan eclined by 62% from $ 316.77 to 120.40 million per year between 1990 and 2000 (totaling $855.26-981.85 million over 10-years). This massive decrease is largely attributable to the 71% loss of wetlands/tidal flats. Our sensitivity analysis suggested that these estimates were relatively robust. We also found that the contribution of water regulation, water supply, aste treatment, and raw materials increased, while the contribution of nutrient cycling, food production, disturbance regulation, recreation, abitat/refugia, and biological control decreased during the 10-year time period. We conclude that future land-use policy formulation should give precedence to the conservation of these ecosystems over uncontrolled reclamation, and that further land reclamation should be based on rigorous environmental impact analyses.

Functional zones in cities constitute the most conspicuous components of newly developed urban areas, and have been a hot spot for domestic and foreign investors in China, which not only show the expanse of urban space accompanied by the shifts both in landscape (from rural to urban) and land use (fromless extensive to extensive), but also display the transformation of regional ecological functions. By using the theories and methods of landscape ecology, the structure of landscapes and landscape ecological planning can be analyzed and evaluated for studying the urban functional zones'layout. In 1990, the Central Government of China declared to develop and open up Pudong New Area so as to promote economic development in Shanghai. Benefited fromthe advantages of Shanghai's location and economy, the government of Pudong New Area has successively built up 7 different functional zones over the past decade according to their unctions and strategic goals. Based on the multi2spectral satellite imageries taken in 1990, 1997 and 2000, a landscape ecology analysis was carried out for Pudong New Area of Shanghai, supported by GIS technology. Green space (including croplands) and built2up areas are the major factors considered in developing urban landscape. This paper was mainly concerned with the different spatial patterns and dynamics of green space, built2up areas and new buildings in different functional zones, as influenced by different functional layouts and development strategies. The rapid urbanization in Pudong New Area resulted in a more homogeneous landscape. Agricultural landscape and suburban landscape were gradually replaced by urban landscape as the degree of urbanization increased. As a consequence of urbanization in Pudong, not only built2up patches, but also newly2built patches and green patches merged into one large patch, which should be attributed to the construction policy of extensive green space as the urban development process in Pudong New Area. The shape of green area of 7 functional zones became more and more regular because of the horticultural needs in Shanghai urban planning. Some suggestions were finally made for the study of future urban planning and layout.