As an important node connecting land and ocean, coastal cities have natural geographical advantages and strong attractiveness, which can directly participate in the national division of labor and trade, provide more employment opportunities, and accelerate population accumulation. But this has also brought many environmental problems to the cities. As the living infrastructure in the city, the urban forest has the functions of improving the urban microclimate, water conservation, maintaining the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide, purifying the atmosphere, maintaining soil fertility, and eliminating noise, etc. It is the closest ecosystem to nature. Its role in improving the urban living environment and maintaining sustainable development is receiving more and more attention as an important foundation for sustainable urban development.
Due to the limitations of the development space of coastal cities and economic demands, a large number of natural forests, such as wetland forests, have been destroyed. Nevertheless, when the city development reaches a certain level, quite a few afforestation activities also occur in the coastal city, increasing the area of forests. However, the initial afforestation activities often focus on the number of forests but pay less attention to the quality. Specifically, there are unreasonable problems in tree species selection, planting density, configuration schemes, etc., which have a certain limit on the ecological service function of forests. In addition, coastal urban forests are mainly located within the city, coastal wetlands, and affiliated islands. Due to the diversity in geographical locations, they may bear different environmental pressures such as air, soil, and water pollution and are subject to varying degrees of human interference in their ecological service functions.
With the development of coastal cities, the forest ecological service value is specified in both temporal evolution and spatial distribution. Therefore, this Research Topic mainly focuses on forest ecosystem services in coastal cities. Specific topics include but are not limited to:
- The spatiotemporal evolution of forest landscape patterns during the expansion of coastal cities, as well as the driving mechanism of human activity factors on evolution and the response of forest ecosystems
- Management of coastal urban forests, as well as response and feedback to policies
- Accurate quantification and modeling of the service level of urban forest ecosystems, from the extraction and spatial pattern analysis of urban forests to the calculation of ecological service functions such as habitat quality, carbon sequestration capacity, conservation water, climate regulation, air purification, cooling, and noise reduction, etc.
- Exploring the relationship between specific biological indicators of coastal wetland forests and environmental, as well as human activities, to accurately invert the development (degradation) process of wetland forests
- The relationship between forest diversity and ecological service value in coastal wetlands under different spatial and hydrological environments
- Study on the vulnerability of island forest ecosystems under the influence of human activities. For example, evaluating and predicting the impact of island tourism, port construction, and ship pollution on forest ecological service functions and exploring ecological compensation schemes and mechanisms.
Keywords:
Coastal cities, Human activities, Island, Forest ecological services, Wetland
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
As an important node connecting land and ocean, coastal cities have natural geographical advantages and strong attractiveness, which can directly participate in the national division of labor and trade, provide more employment opportunities, and accelerate population accumulation. But this has also brought many environmental problems to the cities. As the living infrastructure in the city, the urban forest has the functions of improving the urban microclimate, water conservation, maintaining the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide, purifying the atmosphere, maintaining soil fertility, and eliminating noise, etc. It is the closest ecosystem to nature. Its role in improving the urban living environment and maintaining sustainable development is receiving more and more attention as an important foundation for sustainable urban development.
Due to the limitations of the development space of coastal cities and economic demands, a large number of natural forests, such as wetland forests, have been destroyed. Nevertheless, when the city development reaches a certain level, quite a few afforestation activities also occur in the coastal city, increasing the area of forests. However, the initial afforestation activities often focus on the number of forests but pay less attention to the quality. Specifically, there are unreasonable problems in tree species selection, planting density, configuration schemes, etc., which have a certain limit on the ecological service function of forests. In addition, coastal urban forests are mainly located within the city, coastal wetlands, and affiliated islands. Due to the diversity in geographical locations, they may bear different environmental pressures such as air, soil, and water pollution and are subject to varying degrees of human interference in their ecological service functions.
With the development of coastal cities, the forest ecological service value is specified in both temporal evolution and spatial distribution. Therefore, this Research Topic mainly focuses on forest ecosystem services in coastal cities. Specific topics include but are not limited to:
- The spatiotemporal evolution of forest landscape patterns during the expansion of coastal cities, as well as the driving mechanism of human activity factors on evolution and the response of forest ecosystems
- Management of coastal urban forests, as well as response and feedback to policies
- Accurate quantification and modeling of the service level of urban forest ecosystems, from the extraction and spatial pattern analysis of urban forests to the calculation of ecological service functions such as habitat quality, carbon sequestration capacity, conservation water, climate regulation, air purification, cooling, and noise reduction, etc.
- Exploring the relationship between specific biological indicators of coastal wetland forests and environmental, as well as human activities, to accurately invert the development (degradation) process of wetland forests
- The relationship between forest diversity and ecological service value in coastal wetlands under different spatial and hydrological environments
- Study on the vulnerability of island forest ecosystems under the influence of human activities. For example, evaluating and predicting the impact of island tourism, port construction, and ship pollution on forest ecological service functions and exploring ecological compensation schemes and mechanisms.
Keywords:
Coastal cities, Human activities, Island, Forest ecological services, Wetland
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.