125

A Review of Dissolved Iron Behavior with Respect to Land-use andLand-cover in the Amur River Basin and its Conservation for
the Sustainable Future of the Region
Takayuki SHIRAIWA
Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University
N19, W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0819, Japan*e-mail: shiraiwa@lowtem.hokudai.ac.jp

Abstract
The Amur-Okhotsk Project introduced a new global environmental concept referred to as the “giant-fish
breeding forest (GFBF)” by expanding the traditional Japanese idea of uotsuki-rin (fish-breeding forest),
which associates upstream forests with the related coastal ecosystem. The project found that primary
production in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Oyashio open water region depended on dissolved iron transported
from the Amur River and its watershed. Therefore, the Amur River basin could be recognized as a GFBF of
the Sea of Okhotsk and the Oyashio region. The dissolved iron originates from natural wetlands in the middle
and lower reaches of the Amur River, where land-use and land-cover change rapidly. Therefore, the impact ofland-use changes on iron discharge is considered to be significant. In fact, nearly half of the wetlands in the
Sanjiang plain were reclaimed in the latter part of the 20th century, resulting in a significant decrease in theconcentration of iron in tributary river waters. A numerical simulation suggests further changes in land-use
and land-cover in the Amur River basin may decrease the dissolved iron supply to the oceans. We therefore
propose to establish an epistemic community for further discussion of ways the GFBF could be used sustainably by various stakeholders in the multilateral countries involved.
Key words: Amur River, dissolved iron, epistemic community, fish breeding forest, land use,
the Sea of Okhotsk

1. Introduction
Being situated at the northern end of JapaneseArchipelago, the Sea of Okhotsk, together with its eastern counterpart, the Oyashio open water, is characterized
by its biodiversity and rich biomass. Its marine products
are an essential part not only of the Japanese market but
also of those of East Asian countries and the RussianFederation. The Amur-Okhotsk Project, conducted by the
Research Institute of Humanity and Nature in Kyoto,
Japan, has clarified that the highest primary production inboth the Sea of Okhotsk and the Oyashio region depends
on dissolved iron that was transported to the ocean fromthe Amur River (Heilongjiang in China) (Shiraiwa, 2011,2012; Nishioka et al., 2013, 2014).
Regarding the river and ocean linkage found in the
Amur-Okhotsk system, the highest iron concentration
was found to be dissolved in wetlands in the Amur Riverbasin. It is clearly exemplified in the Sanjiang Plain in
China where one of the most extensive wetlands hasdeveloped among the three rivers, i.e., the Heilongjiang(Amur), Songhua Jiang and Ussuri Rivers. The dissolved
Global Environmental Research
18/2014: 125-132
printed in Japaniron is composed of humic substances produced in forests
and wetlands and transported by the river system to the
Sea of Okhotsk. The dissolved iron then flocculates in theestuary area and precipitates on the continental shelf.
Thermohaline circulation caused by the formation of sea
ice in the Sea of Okhotsk then transports the dissolved
iron off-shore with the help of the East Sakhalin Current
until it upwells among the Kuril Islands. This is how
primary production in the Sea of Okhotsk and Oyashio
open water utilizes the dissolved iron from the Amur
River (Nishioka & Nakatsuka, 2012).
The dissolved iron, together with nitrate, phosphateand silicate, is essential for photosynthesis of phytoplankton. The reason the Sea of Okhotsk and the Oyashio
open water can be characterized by the highest primary
production in the world is most likely due to the input ofdissolved iron from the Amur River. It is, therefore,reasonable to call the Amur-Okhotsk land-ocean linkage
a “giant fish-breeding forest” based on the traditional
Japanese concept named uotsuki-rin (fish-breeding
forest), indicating the productivity of estuary areas being
due mainly to the nutrient supply from a healthy©2014 AIRIES

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T. SHIRAIWA

neighboring forest (Shiraiwa, 2011).
The present paper reviews the behavior of dissolved
iron with respect to land-use and land-cover in the Amur
River basin and its conservation for the sustainable futureof the region, based on scientific papers presented mainly
by members of the Amur-Okhotsk Project.

2. Regional Settings
The Amur River, including major tributaries like the
Shilka, Argun, Zeya, Bureya, Songhua Jiang (Sungari)
and Ussuri Rivers, is 4,444 km long and has a drainage
area of 2,129,700 km2 (Fig. 1: Simonov & Dahmer,2008). The major part of the drainage area is covered byboreal forest, mixed forest and swamps. The lower part ofthe drainage area consists of cultivated land and major
cities such as Blagoveshchensk, Harbin, Khabarovsk andKomsomolsk-na-Amure. The relatively lesser development of the Amur River basin enables the river totransport various kinds of terrestrial materials to the Seaof Okhotsk. Of particular importance is dissolved iron,which is considered to originate in anoxic environments
such as swamps.
The Russian part of the Amur River basin was developed after the end of the 19th century. In China, i.e., theSonghua Jiang river basin, intensive human activity dates

back several hundred years. Accelerated human impact
became more obvious from the middle of the 20th
century on both sides of the Amur River (Ganzey, 2005).
The area is disturbed currently by various anthropogenic
and natural impacts such as forest fires, deforestation,
agricultural and industrial activities, flooding anddrought. Land-use changes in the Amur River basin,
therefore, might have caused or may cause significant
changes in the flux of dissolved iron, which might haveresulted or may result in biomass production changes in
the ocean.

3. Land-use and Land-cover in the Amur
River Basin
A set of Landsat-7 satellite images from 2000–2001
provided the initial basic information for drawing amodern land use map of the Amur River basin (Fig. 2:
Ermoshin et al., 2013). Composite compilations with anaverage resolution of 30 m or more were used in the work.
Landsat TM satellite images with a resolution of 15–30
m were used to specify some of the more disputed territories. Decoding was done using GIS ArcView 3.3 and
ArcGIS software with a special extension Image Analysis to form shape files and convert them subsequently
into Arc/Info coverings. Information converted into

Fig. 1 Geographical map of the Amur River basin and its neighboring seas (Simonov & Dahmer, 2008).

A Review of Dissolved Iron Behavior with Respect to Land-use and Land-cover in the Amur River Basin

127

Land Use Type

Fig. 2 Modern land use map of the Amur River basin (Ermoshin et al., 2013).

electronic raster and then into vector format included amap of Amur River watershed vegetation at a scale of
1:2,500,000, a vegetation map of the Mongolian National
Republic, a vegetation map of China from an atlas ofvegetation of the PRC, and raster topographical maps at ascale of 1:500,000. It was necessary to create a uniform
classification of land use types since the classifications
accepted and used in China, Russia and Mongolia differed significantly.
The classification of forest lands has been corrected.
Along with the density of wood stands, their typologicalcharacteristics have been added. Coniferous, mixed anddeciduous forests, sparse forests, and other forests havebeen further defined among forest lands. Since the mapping scale is small enough and the level of generalization
is high, the concept of each type includes various kinds ofland use and natural states of lands. The genesis of eachtype of land is not considered here; they may have been
be formed in very different ways. The “coniferous forest”
type includes fir (Abies), Korean pine, other pine, larchand forests of other coniferous species. The “mixed forest” type includes all transitive versions from coniferous
to deciduous forests at approximately equal ratios. The“deciduous forest” type includes broad-leaved, smallleaved and other forests of deciduous species. The“sparse forests” type includes sparse forests of various
compositions, alternating with woods that have bushes

and density stands of less than 30%. Again, as mentioned
above, the genesis of these types of land is not considered; they can form after fires, logging and so on. The“other forests” type includes industrial plantations andothers. The “dry lands” and “paddy fields” categories
describe reclaimed and unreclaimed agricultural lands.
The “lake and reservoir” category embraces lakes, water
reservoirs and swamps. The “wetland” type includes
swamps, high bogs and water-logged flooded meadowsand marshes.
At present, forest areas occupy over half (54.3%) of
the watershed territory. Over 30% of this area is occupied
by mixed and coniferous woods situated mainly in
Russian territory. One must note that the majority of“slash fire,” “forest cut” and “sparse growth” sites arealso located in Russian territory, reflecting adverse trends
in forest management which became common in Russian
territory in the 1990s. Deciduous forests occupy about
15% of all forest lands.
Agricultural lands occupying nearly 20% of its territory are the second most common type of land in thewatershed area. The dominant share of cultivated lands,
including irrigated land, is located in the Chinese part of
the watershed. Prompt reduction of wetlands is one of theconsequences of China’s active agricultural development.
According to Liu et al. (2004), the share of wetlands on
the Sanjiang Plain during the period from 1950 to 2000

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T. SHIRAIWA

fell by 52.5%, from 32.4 thousand km2 to 9.2 thousand
km2. At the same time, the share of agricultural land
increased from 10.2% to 55.1%. Most of the remaining
wetlands are located in Russian territory.
“Scrub” and “grassland” also make up about 20% of
the Amur River watershed area. The territorial distribution of types of modern land use reflects both the naturaland climatic conditions of the territory, as well as thenational features of nature management, and the historical and modern trends in economic development of thecountries involved.
Within the Chinese part of the watershed, coniferous
forests occupy the largest area within the Great Khingan
Ridge of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, measured
at 25,300 km2. Mixed forests prevail in Heilongjiang
Province, measuring 59,700 km2 or about 54.2% of thearea of forests in the Chinese part of the watershed.
Decoded satellite images allowed us to reveal other features of the modern state of forests in Chinese territory.
Considerable divergence was observed between the dataof the atlas of vegetation of the PRC and the decoded data.
For example, the northern portion of the Great Khingan
Ridge is shown in the atlas as a zone with a practicallycontinuous distribution of coniferous forests. The decoded data, however, show that at present, deciduous
forests dominate the area, with coniferous and mixed
forests typifying the central and southern portions of theGreat Khingan Ridge. A high share of timber cuttings in
Jilin Province, about 36.3% of the logged area in the
Chinese part of the watershed, was also apparently
unexpected. Moreover, one must take into account thatthe data used may not reflect the present situation in full
because no features occupying areas of less than 50 km2
are displayed on the final map.
A wide spectrum of land use characterizes Dornod
Province of Mongolia. Deciduous forests dominate theforested lands, accounting for up to 24.7% of the forestsin the Mongolian portion of the watershed. The shares ofconiferous and mixed forests are much less, about 5.6%
and 2.3%, respectively. Sparse growth and scrubs arewidely distributed, reaching 21% and 43.5%, respectively. Approximately half of the grassland of theMongolian portion of the watershed is concentrated inthis province. About 86.5% of its agricultural lands arealso located in this area.

4. Discharge of Dissolved Iron under Different
Land-use and Land-coverConcentrations of dissolved iron in surface andsubsurface waters were estimated in various parts in the
Amur River basin (Nagao et al., 2012; Yoh, 2012). The
results showed natural wetlands with gentle slopes
located in the middle and lower parts of the basin to be
the major source of dissolved iron from terrestrial zones
entering the Amur River.
In the upstream forested basin, dissolved iron concentrations are around 1 mg Fe L-1 in the surface waterand much higher (sometimes more than 10 mg Fe L-1) insoil interstitial waters, having a seasonal variation withmaxima in summer. The dissolved iron concentration
observed in a number of rivers and agricultural drainage
waters of the Sanjiang plain when not frozen has anaverage of approximately 1 mg Fe L-1 and varies considerably according to the condition of the watershed.
Dissolved iron appears predominantly in complex forms
in soil water, river water and agricultural drainage water,in which humic substances play an important role intransportation of iron as a complex ligand. As a result,
1.1 ± 0.7 x 1011 g/year of dissolved iron is found to betransported to the estuary area from the Amur River.
The impact of land-use change on dissolved iron discharge was also studied in experimental plots of uplandfields and paddy fields on the Sanjiang plain, which had
been converted from natural wetlands several decadesago (Yoh, 2012). Soil in the upland fields was found toremain in an oxidized condition throughout the year,
implying the absence of iron discharge. In paddy fields,
surface water and soil water had dissolved iron concentrations somewhat lower than those of natural wetlands, but importantly, controlled water discharge due toagricultural management is thought to reduce the iron
discharge considerably.
Paddy fields on the Sanjiang plain are irrigated withgroundwater in many cases. The strikingly high concentration of dissolved iron might indicate an additional
iron source. Elevated contents of amorphous iron oxides
in the upper soil layer in paddy fields, however, were
found to account adequately for the calculated total
amount of iron supplied by groundwater irrigation since
the conversion of parts of the Sanjiang plain to rice paddies, suggesting an almost complete retention of ironadded by the groundwater (Yoh et al., 2010). Considering
the irrigation and controlled water discharge describedabove, one can conclude that iron discharge may be muchless for paddy fields than for natural wetlands.
Monitoring data indicate that the concentration ofdissolved iron in the Naoli River, which runs across the
Sanjiang plain, has been consistently decreasing in recent
decades (Yoh et al., 2010). The observation of a peat
layer, except in hilly areas, suggests a predominance of
wetlands on the Sanjiang plain before agricultural activities started. A survey of the ground water table, however,demonstrated that the current ground levels are much
lower in most regions owing to reclamation by waterdrainage (Yoh et al., 2010). It is likely that the land previously dominated by wetlands has been becoming steadily
drier on the Sanjiang plain, reducing the iron discharge as
mentioned above.
Land-use and its historical changes in the Amur Riverbasin were visualized with the use of various temporaland spatial mappings. Ganzey et al. (2010) and Ermoshin
et al. (2013) compiled a land-use map for the 1930s forthe whole Amur River basin based on various historicalmaps and information from Japan, Russia and China(Fig 3: Ermoshin et al., 2013). As a result, areal changes
in various land-use types were clearly demonstrated(Table 1: Ganzey et al., 2010). In total, forest, grassland

A Review of Dissolved Iron Behavior with Respect to Land-use and Land-cover in the Amur River Basin

129

Fig. 3 Land cover map of the Amur River basin for 1930 –1940 (Ermoshin et al., 2013).

Table 1 Areal changes in land-use and land-cover of the Amur River basin between the 1930s and 2000
(Ganzey et al., 2010).

Land use type
Forest land
Sparse forest
BushesGrassland
Dry land
Paddy land
WetlandLakes & reservoirs
Urban land
Forest cutting area
Burned-out forest
Mountain tundra

1930 –1940(km2)
105701697306
68703
351270136783546
270251
9087
309
2689
17423
21144

2000 –2001(km2)
945812
14539712159824866434669625982
139929
13112
2666
8655
27365
13177

and wetland areas decreased by 111,200, 102,606,
130,322 km2, respectively. Instead, a significant expansion of agricultural fields occurred in the Amur Riverbasin.
Changes during the most recent 19 years were analyzed using Pathfinder AVHRR Land datasets and satellite remote-sensing techniques (Murooka et al., 2007).

Change(km2)–111204
48090
52894–102606
20991325437–130322
4026
2358
5967
9943
–7967

1930 –1940
(%)
51.8
4.8
3.4
17.2
6.7
0.0
13.2
0.4
0.0
0.1
0.9
1.0

2000 –2001
(%)
46.4
7.1
6.0
12.2
17.0
1.3
6.9
0.6
0.1
0.4
1.3
0.6

Change
(%)
–5.5
2.4
2.6
–5.0
10.3
1.2
– 6.4
0.2
0.1
0.3
0.5
– 0.4

The results show significant changes on the Sanjiang
plain in which approximately 10,000 km2 of wetlands
were reclaimed as paddy fields from 1980 to 2000. Aerialchanges in Russian forests were not significant but thequality of the forests is considered to be deteriorating
owing to frequent forest fires and poor management.
Such land-use changes have been caused by various

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T. SHIRAIWA

factors. According to analyses of the underlying causesof the degradation of forest resources in Khabarovsk Kraiand the current state of forest management policy, forest
fires and poor management systems are identified as the
major causes of forest degradation (Kakizawa et al.,2010). The rapid increase in timber exports to China andpoor forest policies are thought to have accelerated forest
degradation. On the Sanjian plain, there was rapid
development of paddy fields in accordance with governmental policy. Farm management has improved, but alack of water has become a serious issue and excessive
pumping of ground water has caused a rapid lowering of
the ground water table on the Sanjiang plain.
Onishi et al. (2012) developed a numerical hydrogeochemical model with special emphasis on iron
dynamics of the Amur River basin. The accuracy of thecalculated discharge and dissolved iron concentrations isreasonable at a time resolution of one month during theperiod from 1980 to 1990. Using the model, the effect ofland-cover change on dissolved iron productivity wasevaluated. The results of numerical experiments suggestthat a 50% conversion of the remaining wetland to
agricultural lands might decrease the dissolved iron flux
by more than 10%.

5. Conservation of the Amur-Okhotsk
Ecosystem
The Amur River system transports pollutants as well
as dissolved iron. An explosive accident happened at a
petrochemical company in Jilin Province of China in
November 2005, releasing significant amounts of benzene and nitrobenzene into the Songhua River, which
carried them to the Amur River (UNEP, 2006). People
living in the Amur River basin became aware that such a
point-source pollution could seriously impact both theecosystems in the basin and the ocean beyond. It also
raised the question of how we could control suchsignificant transboundary environmental problems without multilateral treaties and cooperation.
The Sea of Okhotsk has not been included in any
domestic or multilateral frameworks for environmental
conservation. The situation has made it difficult to protect the Sea of Okhotsk from transboundary environmental problems. The first bilateral agreement on
ecosystem conservation in the region between Japan andRussia was signed by both governments in May 2009. It
will be a great step for the future of sustainable use ofmarine resources in the Sea of Okhotsk. However, theSea of Okhotsk is strongly connected with the Amur
River; therefore, conservation of the Sea of Okhotsk must
be undertaken in cooperation with the countries of theAmur River basin. In other words, the conservation andsustainable use of the Amur Okhotsk ecosystem should
be a cooperative undertaking involving Mongolia, China,
Russia and Japan.
An international symposium on “Environmental
Conservation of the Sea of Okhotsk: Cooperation
between Japan, China and Russia” was held on Novem-

ber 7 to 8, 2009, at a conference hall at Hokkaido University as an initiative of the Amur Okhotsk Project (AmurOkhotsk Consortium, 2014a). The scientific findings of
the Amur Okhotsk Project opened insight into the factthat the environment of the Sea of Okhotsk could not be
conserved without considering the neighboring Amur
River basin. Participants from academic and administrative organizations then discussed the fertility and vulnerability of the Sea of Okhotsk with citizens in Japan. On
the basis of the two days of discussions, the participants
proposed a joint statement in three languages. Here, theparticipants agreed to 1) promote sharing of information
to the degree that disclosure is possible by the researchersof each country; 2) make efforts toward cooperativeenvironmental monitoring; and 3) facilitate robust discussions that transcend borders toward environmental
conservation and sustainable use of the resources of theAmur River Basin and the Sea of Okhotsk.
A consortium was established during this occasion for
discussing issues grounded in scientific knowledge inorder to facilitate common recognition through the exchange of opinions and discussions on the naturalenvironment of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Amur River
Basin. The consortium welcomed members from
Mongolia in 2010 and became an academic network
among Mongolia, China, Russia and Japan.
Following the joint statement mentioned above andthe International Workshop among the participating
members on November 1–2, 2010, the 2nd International
Meeting of the Amur-Okhotsk Consortium was held in
November 5–6, 2011. A total of 26 scientific and social
scientific presentations were given and a total of
223 participants joined the symposium (Amur-Okhotsk
Consortium, 2012). Five sessions were allocated to thefollowing important topics: 1) environments in the Amur
River basin and changes in them; 2) environments of the
Sea of Okhotsk and changes in them; 3) the accident at
the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and its
impacts on the marine environment; 4) socio-economic
analyses of the Amur-Okhotsk region; and 5) international cooperation for environmental conservation in the
Pan-Okhotsk region. Later, general discussions were held
for sharing environmental data-sets previously obtainedby individual institutions. It would be impossible for any
individual country to resolve problems such as thenitrobenzene pollution of the Amur River system in 2005or the radioactive pollution of the Pacific coast of Japan;
multilateral cooperation across state borders is essential
in such cases. The transboundary environmental problems occurring in Far Eastern Asia are the concern of
every country and thus solved by close collaboration
involving each country.
The 3rd International Meeting of the Amur-Okhotsk
Consortium was held in Vladivostok, Russian Federation
on October 7–8, 2013 (Amur-Okhotsk Consortium,
2014b). It was held in collaboration with the Conference
on “Sustainable Nature Management in Coastal Areas”
headed by the Pacific Geographical Institute, Far Eastern
Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. ThreeA Review of Dissolved Iron Behavior with Respect to Land-use and Land-cover in the Amur River Basin

topics were discussed there intensively as top-priority
scientific and environmental issues to be solved more
efficiently by collaboration involving multilateral efforts:
1) assessment of the tremendous flood of the middle
reach of the Amur River in 2013; 2) collaboration among
various nature and biosphere reserves and among multiple stakeholders, including NGOs; and 3) sharing information on oil spills and pollution.

6. Summary
This study found that primary production in the Sea of
Okhotsk and the Oyashio open water region depended on
dissolved iron transported from the Amur River and its
watershed. Therefore, the Amur River basin can berecognized as a “giant-fish breeding forest (GFBF)” of
the Sea of Okhotsk and the Oyashio region. “Fishbreeding forests” are a traditional Japanese idea relating
upstream forests with the coastal ecosystem. The dissolved iron in the Amur River basin originates fromnatural wetlands in the middle and lower reaches of theAmur River, where land-use and land-cover havechanged rapidly. The impact of land-use changes on iron
discharge is considered to be significant at the tributary
scale. In fact, nearly half of the wetlands in the Sanjiang
plain were reclaimed in the latter part of the 20th century,
resulting in a significant decrease in the concentration ofiron in tributary river waters. This is still controversial,
however, at the basin-wide scale: we have seen no clear
tendency of continuous decrease in dissolved ironconcentrations in the main channel of the Amur River. A
numerical simulation suggests further changes in landuse and land-cover, such as reclamation of wetlands,
deforestation and forest fires, in the Amur River basin
may decrease the dissolved iron supply to the oceans.
Based on the scientific results described above and on
joint field work, as well as discussions among Japanese,
Russian and Chinese scientists who collaborated witheach other through the Amur-Okhotsk Project, an epistemic community named the “Amur-Okhotsk Consortium” was established in 2009 for further discussion ofways to achieve sustainable use of the GFBF across stateborders in the Amur- Okhotsk region. Since then, it has
held biennial international meetings and joint scientificresearch cruises in addition to presenting policy-making
proposals.
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Takayuki SHIRAIWA

While working at the Institute of Low Temperature
Science at Hokkaido University as an associate
professor, Takayuki Shiraiwa has participated invarious glaciological and environmental projects in
the Antarctica and the Arctic and high alpine regions in the mid-latitudes such as the Alps,
Himalayas, Patagonia and Kamchatka. He has
published nearly 50 scientific papers and ten books, all of which are
related to environmental science. He led the Amur-Okhotsk Project in2005 to 2009, in which he studied the linkage between the Amur Riverbasin and the Sea of Okhotsk with the help of Russian and Chinesescientists. He has led a multilateral academic network named the AmurOkhotsk Consortium since 2009 and proposes to strengthen collaboration
among scientists living in Japan, Russia, China and Mongolia toward asustainable future in the northeast Asia and the Russian Far East.

(Received 10 October 2014, Accepted 20 November 2014)