ABSTRACT Xu, H.; Li, D.; Hou, X.; Yu, X.; Liu, Y.; Li, X.; Li, B.; Chen, L.; Wang, X., and Xia, S., . Home range and habitat disturbance identification for a vulnerable shorebird species ( Larus saundersi ) in the Yellow River Delta, China. Understanding the home range of animal species can be helpful to biodiversity and habitat conservation. Saunders's Gull ( Larus saundersi ), one of the vulnerable birds in the world, has become an important indicator species to measure the quality of ecological environment in the coastal wetlands of the Yellow River Delta. Information about habitat selection of the species has so far been mainly from field survey. In view of the successful application of satellite tracking in animal ecology, two individual birds were tagged for home range identification and habitat disturbance analysis. The gull's home range was confirmed using the Brownian bridge movement model. Habitat disturbances information from anthropogenic activities was analyzed by kernel density estimation as well as buffer zone analysis. Considering the gregariousness of the shorebird, the tracking sample data, though limited, can reflect the species' habitat selection to a certain extent. The results showed that (1) the Saunders's Gull's main home range was located in the northern and eastern coastal areas of Dongying city, the seashore area at the border of Binzhou with Dongying and Cangzhou city, and the Nanpu wetland of Tangshan city; and (2) human activity had a substantial effect on the home range selection, for example, mariculture was an important part of its home range, the Saunders's Gull exhibited an approach–avoidance behavior to wind turbines and oil wells, and activity time varied with different distances to the road. The study provides insights into the behavior of the shorebird and is of great significance to sustainable development of the human–environment relationship in the Yellow River Delta.

ABSTRACT Song, Y.; Li, D., and Hou, X., 2020. Characteristics of mainland coastline changes in Southeast Asia during the 21st century. Journal of Coastal Research, 36(2), 261–275. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Based on multitemporal Landsat images covering the entire coastal zone, a visual interpretation method was adopted to extract the coastlines of mainland Southeast Asia (MSA) in 2000 and 2015 referencing Google Earth images and global distribution of mangrove data. Coastline structures, coastline fractal dimensions, coastline change rates, and patterns of land–sea interchange were analyzed to reveal the spatial–temporal characteristics of mainland coastline changes in the 21st century. The results showed that (1) during the past 15 years, the length and percentage of natural coastline decreased from 15,440.24 km (83.33%) to 14,909.75 km (78.91%) and artificial coastlines increased at an average growth rate of 29.04% from 3088.79 to 3985.89 km; (2) the fractal dimensions of most areas in MSA tended to increase under interference driven by human activities, and the coastline morphology became more complex overall; (3) coastlines had obvious evolution, in which 18.54% of the coastline advanced toward the sea and 11.25% retreated toward land at average rates of +20.36 and –15.41 m.a –1 , respectively; and (4) the number of patches representing land–sea interchange reached 6607 so that the net land expansion area was 534.25 km 2 and among these regions, those larger than 1 km 2 accounted for only a small percentage (2.54%) of the total number but 79.41% of the total area. These hot spots were mainly concentrated in Myanmar, followed by Vietnam and Malaysia. Overall, the coastline of MSA was characterized by rapid artificial growth but still had a high percentage of naturalization. When it comes to developing the marine economy and addressing the ecological risk, the intensity of utilization and hardening of the coastline will likely increase.

ABSTRACT Liu, Y.; Li, X., and Hou, X., 2020. Spatiotemporal changes to the river channel and shoreline of the Yellow River Delta during a 40-year period (1976–2017). Journal of Coastal Research, 36(1), 128–138. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The coastal zone is a sensitive region affected by both human activities and climate change. The shoreline is a crucial component of coastal zones. Shoreline monitoring research has a vital role in managing and protecting coastal ecosystems and communities. This study focuses on measurements of morphological change in the Yellow River channel and the Yellow River Delta (YRD) shoreline during a 40-year period. The lower reaches of the Yellow River continuously changed because of silting, stretching, lifting, swinging, and avulsion, to ultimately, changing course. The location of the mouth of the Yellow River was directly influenced by the swinging and the artificial avulsion. Overall, the shoreline expanded seaward at a decreasing rate over time, but it exhibited distinctively different patterns in two subregions (Diaokou and Qingshuigou). The shoreline in Diaokou displayed a trend of retreating inland, whereas the shoreline in Qingshuigou expanded rapidly towards the sea. The rate of change was greatest near the river mouth. An upward trend in the shape index was found across the YRD and its subregions, reflecting the shoreline becoming more complex over time. Human activities will become an increasingly important factor affecting the development and evolution of the YRD. This study should be useful for coastal engineers, coastal managers, and policy makers in the YRD.

ABSTRACT Li, D.; Tang, C.; Hou, X., and Zhang, H., 2019. Rapid morphological changes caused by intensive coastal development in Longkou Bay, China. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(3), 615–624. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Analyses of the evolution of subaqueous topography in coastal water provide an understanding of the effects of intensive coastal development on bays and estuaries. Analysis of a series of historical bathymetric acoustic surveys has revealed large changes in morphology from the 1960s to 2010s in Longkou Bay, China. Water depths were extracted from digitized admiralty charts to explore the accretion-erosion characteristics in a geographical information system environment, providing quantitative estimates of morphological changes. Multibeam echosounders were used to map and analyze the geomorphologic features caused by the construction of artificial islands. Results illustrated that the shoreline and bathymetry of Longkou Bay have changed rapidly in recent decades. The subaqueous area decreased by about 15%, while land area increased by more than 13 km 2 in the study area during the last 50 years. From the 1960s to 1990s, the evolution of Longkou Bay was mainly governed by natural processes with a patchy distribution of deposition and erosion, and there were few signs of change related to large-scale human activities. During the period from the 1990s to 2010s, intensive coastal developments, including large port engineering projects, channel dredging, and construction of artificial islands, became the main processes affecting morphological changes in Longkou Bay. The high-resolution bathymetric results near the artificial island showed that the seafloor was dredged at many sites, leaving large areas of borrow pits. The sudden change of the underwater topography will lead to the destruction of local benthic habitat, and effective measures need to be taken to protect and remediate the heavily disturbed subaqueous environment.