Assessing the impact of hydroelectric project construction on the ecological integrity of the Nuozhadu Nature Reserve, southwest China.

Regional ecological degradation induced by hydroelectric project construction (HPC) is of great concern in the field of landscape ecology research. Using GIS-based spatial analysis, we predicted and assessed the impacts of HPC on the ecological integrity of the Nuozhadu Nature Reserve (NNR). The results show that, after Nuozhadu HPC, the naturality of the NNR will be modified due to changes in the landscape composition such that larger areas covered by vegetation will be occupied by construction land and flooded by water areas. Meanwhile, landscape diversity will increase due to the additional landscape types of construction land and submerged areas, while landscape stability will decrease because of the splitting and contagion of the landscape after Nuozhadu HPC. The human disturbance index shows that the HPC will contribute to increasing the disturbance of the ecosystem. From buffer analyses, we conclude that the impacts of HPC will mainly occur in buffer zones over the distance of 800 m from the Lancang River in the NNR, and tend to be moderate in the 800-5,000 m buffer zone. Therefore, within the 800 m buffer zone, taking the naturality, diversity and stability of the ecosystem as well as anthropogenic interference as evaluation indicators, we calculated the ecological integrity index; the results indicate that the ecological integrity of the NNR will decrease by 7.6 % after project construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]