Centennial loss of lake wetlands in the Yangtze Plain, China: Impacts of land use changes accompanied by hydrological connectivity loss

Humans have played a fundamental role in altering lake wetland ecosystems, necessitating the use of diverse data types to accurately quantify long-term changes, identify potential drivers, and establish a baseline status. We complied high-resolution historical topographic maps and Landsat imagery to assess the dynamics of the lake wetlands in the Yangtze Plain over the past century, with special attention to land use and hydrological connectivity changes. Results showed an overall loss of 45.6 % (∼11,859.5 km