Improvement of Natural Environments of Coastal Zone in South China

Abstract

The South China coastal zone has a nice natural environment (Zhao, 1988). It slopes towards the sea and consists of mountains, hills, terraces, constructive plains and tidal flats. The land is located south of the Tropic of Cancer, bordering the tropical sea, and influenced by monsoon winds and typhoons. It is warm all year through. Annual mean atmospheric temperature is 21.2 (Chaozhou)-25.5 (Sanya)-27.5°C (Taiping Island, Nansha Islands). It has much rain, the annual rainfall is between 993.3 mm (Dongfang) to 2869 mm (Dongxing), and about 1500 mm for the most parts. It has a marine climate. The surface runoff is large, whose isopleth is mostly between 600-1800 mm. Off the coast, water temperature is rather high, the mean temperature of many years is 21.2 (Nan’ao Island)-23.5 (the Zhujiang River mouth)-25.1 (Haikou)-26.8 (Yinggehai, the southwest Hainan Island)-27.9°C (the Nansha Islands). It has a great variety of organisms, belonging to the Indian-Malayan Zone. Of nearly 2000 varieties of vascular bundle plants, most are tropical. In the Guangxi, central and eastern Guangdong provinces, southern subtropical zonal vegetation and crimson red soil develop. But to the south in the Hainan Island and the Leizhou Peninsula there are tropical zonal vegetation and laterite. In the islands of the South China Sea, evergreen forests are formed with a dominant species of Pisona alba and many species of animals. There are 1539 organism species in the tidal zone of Guangdong and the Hainan Island. the later has 115 species of reef-building coral and some unidentified species. The southern South China Sea has even more coral species. Most marine organisms near the coast are the species widely distributed in the Indian-Pacific marine tropical zone, and most organisms found in the coastal waters of the Hainan Island and the southern South China Sea are tropical species common in Indian-Malayan waters.