Environment of Hong Kong

Flora and fauna in Hong Kong are altered by climatic change, sea level alternation, and human impact.

[3] Mangroves are habitats of enclosed intertidal mud flats with greatly reduced wave action, located near sources of fresh water.

Popular mangrove habitats in Hong Kong are located along Deep Bay, such as Pak Nai and Tsim Bei Tsui, where salinity is very low under the influence of fresh water from the Pearl River, and along some mud flats where salinity is lowered by surrounding streams, such as Three Fathoms Cove and Ting Kok.

The species inhabiting Hong Kong's rocky coastal areas vary depending the exposure to the wave action from the sea.

They are able to attach on the rock surface and remove food particles in the turbulent water, while the mobile herbivores and carnivores prefer the sheltered shores.

Due to the growth of the economy and business sectors, the water, waste and air pollution cause an adverse effect on the balance of ecology in Hong Kong.

Factories, farms and restaurants in the New Territories dump large amounts of sewage and even untreated waste into the streams and the sea.

Under threat from chemical pollution, increased sea traffic and the destruction of much of the natural shoreline for land reclamation, the number of pink dolphins has dramatically declined with the city's ongoing development.

Yet according to World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong the number of the endangered black-faced spoonbills wintering in Mai Po has risen from roughly 35 in the late 1980s to 152 after 10 years.

Smoke-belching factories, intense construction and large numbers of diesel vehicles have led to dangerous levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide.

Cases of asthma and bronchial infections have soared in recent years, and doctors place the blame squarely on poor air quality.

[10] There has been increasing concern since 2006 over the "wall effect" caused by uniform high-rise developments that adversely impact air circulation.

[12] In 2007, residents of Tai Kok Tsui, increasingly aware of the problem, have been lobbying against the further proliferation of such high-rises in their area that threaten the last air corridor.

[13] Examples are the pinewood nematode from North America and pine-needle scale insect from Taiwan, which together virtually eliminated the native Pinus massoniana in the 1970s and 1980s.