Supplementary file 1_Remotely sensed vegetation resilience in the four major estuarine ecosystems of eastern China.docx

Traditional assessments of degradation mostly rely on static indicators, which are insufficient to reflect dynamical ecosystem properties such as systemic resilience.</p>Methods<p>Here, we used remote sensing data and critical slowing down indicators to evaluate ecological resilience of vegetation in four major estuaries in eastern China: the Liaohe Estuary, the Yangtze Estuary, the Minjiang Estuary, and the Pearl Estuary.

We identified hotspots of resilience loss during the past two decades, and then assessed relative ecological risk using the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework. Using random forest modeling and SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) analysis, we further identified key factors associated with the classification of resilience-loss hotspots.</p>Results<p>Our results showed that all four estuaries have undergone resilience loss, with resilience loss areas accounting for ∼40% of the total study area.