Journal of Coastal Zone Management

Abstract

Sea-Islandscape Ecology: An Integrated Perspective for the Conservation and Management of Sea Islands

Gang Shen and Xiaoming Xia

With vigorous development of marine economies, sea islands have been the frontiers of marine exploration. Degradation of sea-island ecosystems is pervasive, and conservation and management of sea islands is increasingly urgent. Landscape ecology provides an ideal theoretical framework for the conservation and management of sea islands at ecosystem level. A new concept, “sea-islandscape ecology”, was developed based on landscape ecology. To address the urgent problems related to sea islands, the paper explores the following five potential applications of sea-islandscape ecology: (1) noninvasive investigation and assessment of uninhabited sea islands; (2) variation in sea-islandscape ecosystems at different latitudes; (3) mechanisms of anthropogenic disturbances to sea-islandscape ecosystems; (4) coupling sea-islandscape pattern changes with ecological processes; (5) ecological integrity (EI) of sea-islandscape ecosystems.