Ecological restoration zoning for a marine protected area: A case study of Haizhouwan National Marine Park, China

•Ecosystem health assessments as well as vulnerability assessments were conducted.•Analytic hierarchy process integrated with functional zonation was used for assessment results.•This paper provided pertinent ecological restoration measures and recommendations.•The zoning method can be applied to ecological protection and restoration of other MPAs.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an important means in protecting marine ecological functions and landscapes. Existing ecological restoration measures are singular and lack pertinence and systematicness. Thus, a gap between the expectations and real ecological restoration effects exists. This study was based on Haizhouwan National Marine Park, a national MPA of China. After investigating and evaluating the ecological environment in the Haizhouwan protected area (HPA), ecosystem health assessments to three ecological subsystems (i.e., island terrestrial, intertidal, and neritic ecosystems) and vulnerability assessments to the main protected objects (i.e., landforms) were conducted. This study was integrated with the functional zonation of the HPA, which enabled it to conduct an analytic hierarchy process for the assessment results to obtain ecological restoration zoning. According to the zoning, the HPA can be divided into 12 ecological restoration zones, namely, 2 key restoration zones, 3 general restoration zones, 2 taking-into-account restoration zones, and 5 maintaining-the-status zones. This paper also provides pertinent ecological restoration measures and recommendations to the environmental, ecological, and protected object problems existing in different zones. The study results can provide empirical references for the development of ecological restoration plans and measures for the HPA. The zoning method can also be applied to the ecological protection and restoration research of other MPAs.