The Impact of Nature Reserves on the Ecological Network of Urban Agglomerations—A Case Study of the Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River

The accelerated development of urban agglomerations in China has resulted in the significant regional expansion of infrastructure and urban spaces, which has led to the fragmentation of habitats and the degradation of ecosystem function. Ecological networks have been shown to reconnect isolated habitat patches within urban agglomera- tions by identifying ecological sources and constructing corridors, which could enhance regional ecological security. Nature reserves, as critical areas for the protection of key species and ecosystems, play a vital role in this process. Investigating the influence of nature reserves on the ecological networks of urban agglomerations helps to integrate regional ecological resources, optimize ecological network structures, and enhance cross- departmental coordination in nature reserve management and ecological environment protection. Using the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as a case study, this research analyzes the impact of nature reserves on the ecological network of urban agglomerations. Initially, ecological source patches are identified using the “Quality- Morphology-Connectivity” evaluation model. Different types of nature reserves are then superimposed to create four distinct source schemes. Subsequently, a resistance surface is constructed through a comprehensive evaluation method to assess ecological barriers. Then, ecological corridors are generated using circuit theory tools. Finally, a comparison of the effectiveness of the four ecological networks is conducted using 12 landscape pattern metrics. The results indicate several key points. Firstly, the inclusion of nature reserves is shown to supplement ecological sources and increase corridor numbers, thereby en- hancing the optimization effect of the urban agglomerations’ ecological network threefold. Secondly, the impact of nature reserves on the ecological network is closely related to the spatial scale of patches, and patch scale consistency should be considered to prevent network functionality loss. Thirdly, establishing a cross-departmental and cross-regional collaborative management mechanism is recommended to organically integrate nature reserves with ecological networks. These results provide a data-driven foundation for the optimization of ecological networks in urban agglomerations and inform effective manage- ment strategies for nature reserves, to promote the construction of ecological civilization in urban agglomerations.