AN ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF COUPLED CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN ACTIVITIES ON WETLANDS IN ZHALONG NATURE RESERVE, CHINA Yankun Sun * Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, MSU, MI 48823, USA, Northeast agricultural university, Harbin 150030, China Jiaguo Qi Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, MSU, MI 48823, USA Guoping Lei, Hui Zhang Northeast agricultural university, Harbin 150030, China Introduction Wetlands are land areas that are periodically flooded or covered with water. It is the presence of water at or near the soil surface for more than a few weeks during the growing season that may help to create many wetland conditions (Lyon, 2000).The 840-square-mile (2,175-km 2 ) Zhalong Nature Reserve (ZNR) is located in the western part of Heilongjiang province of China, bordered by Qiqihar City, Lindian and Dumeng County. It lies in the western part of the Songnen Plain and comprises marshes and lakes in the Wuyuer River watershed, between 46° 52’ and 47° 32’ N, and 123° 47’ and 124° 37’ E, at 140-146 m above sea level. ZNR is composed of permanent and seasonal freshwater marshes with numerous shallow lakes and ponds and extensive reed beds in the lower drainage basin of the Wuyuer River. Grassland, reed thickets, farmland, and fish farms surround this reserve. Summer is the most humid season, with the average rainfall of 70% of the total annual precipitation. The site receives most rainfall in July, which is also the warmest month in the year. ZNR became a provincial nature reserve in 1979 initiated by Heilongjiang province government, later became a national nature reserve in 1987 by China State Department, and listed in the World Important Wetland Contents in 1992 by the United Nations. Being well known for its red-crowned cranes and other kinds of cranes, Zhalong is called as ‘Crane’s Country’. There are total 15 kinds of crane in the world, ZNR has 6 of them. The 1/6 of the total world-wide red-crowned crane population comes to Zhalong Reserve (Zou, 2003). ________________________________________ Using meteorological observations from the closest weather station, Lindian, over the past 50 years, we analyzed the climate trends of ZNR. Figs.1, 2 and 3 indicate that, over the past 20 years, the annual mean air temperature in the reserve rose significantly; there were only 5 years when the mean annual temperatures were above its 50 year mean (3.2°C) in the prior 30 years (1958-1987), however, in the recent 18 years (1988-2005), all the temperatures were above the mean values. The annual mean temperature increased from its 50 year mean by 0.11, 0.85 and 1.00 °C for the period of 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, respectively, reflecting a 3.5%, 26.6% and 31.3% increases. It is shown from the coefficients of variation (CV) in Table 1 that the temperature in the falls and springs increased sharply with large fluctuations, while the winter temperature increased a little and no change was observed for the summer period. The annual mean minimum * Corresponding author address: Yankun Sun, Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, MSU, MI 48823, USA; Northeast agricultural university, Harbin 150030, China; e-mail: sunyanku@msu.edu Zhalong Nature Reserve is a world important wetland which is well known for its red-crowned cranes. However, in recent years, Zhalong’s wetlands have been facing increasingly threats from both intensified human exploitation and recent climate change. Using meteorological observations over the past 50 years, remote sensing images over the past 30 years, field surveys, and geospatial technologies, we conducted an analysis to improve our understanding of the dynamics of wetlands as a function of socioeconomic factors along with climate drivers. In this paper, we attempted to address the following coupled issues: 1) recent climate trend analysis in the Zhalong area, 2) consequences of increasing human activities and changes in policies coupled with climate change, and 3) recommendation for improved protection of ZNR. Climate trend