Ecosystem services of wetlands and their delineation in China

Abstract Wetland is an important component of the global ecosystem and plays a key role in water conservation, environmental cleanup and biodiversity conservation. China possesses approximately 10% of the world's total wetlands. However, with increasing of population and economic growth, wetlands have been over-exploited in China, which results in sharp decrease in quantity as well as quality and deterioration of their ecological functions. Wetland resources quantity, distribution and problems are analyzed in this paper. On the base of the ecosystem service functions of wetland, China's wetlands are delineated into three Ⅰ type regions and seven Ⅱ type regions, which are the east-north region, Huanghuaihai region, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River region, south China region, Yungui Plateau region，westnorth region and Qingzang region. This work will benefit the eco-environment conservation and planning, safe protection of wetland ecosystem, wetland resources utilization and allocation of development.