Analysis on the decoupling relationship between marine environmental stress and marine economic growth in China

Four marine environmental pressure indicators were chosen to construct decoupling evaluation index,namely industrial wastewater,the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of industrial wastewater,the ammonia nitrogen (AN) of industrial wastewater discharged into the sea and the area of red tide,to analyze temporal and spatial variation trends in decoupling status between marine economic growth and marine environmental pressure based on Tapio decoupling model with the application of decoupling index.Results showed that there were expansive negative decoupling,weak decoupling and strong decoupling between each marine environmental pressure indicator and marine economic growth with different variation trends from 2002 to 2010.Spatially,decoupling status between marine environmental pressure indicators and marine economic growth of Bohai Sea Economic Zone demonstrated to be optimal with stable weak decoupling and strong decoupling.While there were significant fluctuations with decoupling status of Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone and Pearl River Delta Economic Zone,showing deterioration with each marine environmental pressure indicators during different stages.Corresponding policy suggestions were given based on the results to achieve complete decoupling between marine economic growth and marine environmental pressure.