Populations can rapidly respond to environmental change via adaptive phenotypic plasticity, which can also modify interactions between individuals and their environment, affecting population ...dynamics. Bird migration is a highly plastic resource‐tracking tactic in seasonal environments. However, the link between the population dynamics of migratory birds and migration tactic plasticity is not well‐understood.
The quality of staging habitats affects individuals' migration timing and energy budgets in the course of migration and can consequently affect individuals' breeding and overwintering performance, and impact population dynamics. Given staging habitats being lost in many parts of the world, our goal is to investigate responses of individual migration tactics and population dynamics in the face of loss of staging habitat and to identify the key processes connecting them.
We started by constructing and analysing a general full‐annual‐cycle individual‐based model with a stylized migratory population to generate hypotheses on how changes in the size of staging habitat might drive changes in individual stopover duration and population dynamics. Next, through the interrogation of survey data, we tested these hypotheses by analysing population trends and stopover duration of migratory waterbirds experiencing the loss of staging habitat.
Our modelling exercise led to us posing the following hypotheses: the loss of staging habitat generates plasticity in migration tactics, with individuals remaining on the staging habitat for longer to obtain food due to a reduction in per capita food availability. The subsequent increasing population density on the staging habitat has knock‐on effects on population dynamics in the breeding and overwintering stage. Our empirical results were consistent with the modelling predictions.
Our results demonstrate how environmental change that impacts one energetically costly life‐history stage in migratory birds can have population dynamic impacts across the entire annual cycle via phenotypic plasticity.
摘要
种群因具备适应性的表型可塑性可以迅速响应环境变化，同时，表型可塑性也能够通过改变个体与其环境之间的相互作用而影响种群动态。迁徙是鸟类在季节性变化的环境中演化出的一种资源追踪型策略，其可塑性非常强。然而有关迁徙策略可塑性与候鸟种群动态之间的反馈过程尚不清楚。
迁徙中停地的质量影响着候鸟个体在迁徙过程中时间与能量的权衡，进而通过影响个体在繁殖和越冬阶段的表现来影响种群动态。由于世界范围内很多迁徙鸟类的中停地都在急剧减少，因此本文希望探究在迁徙中停地丧失的情况下，鸟类的迁徙策略与种群动态之间存在何种联结。
首先，我们构建了一个包含程式化迁徙种群全年周期的基于个体的模型，利用该模型提出了关于迁徙中停地的变化如何驱动候鸟个体停留时间和种群动态发生改变的假设，并通过对中国渤海湾地区迁徙中停的水鸟的调查数据的分析进行了验证。
我们的假设是：迁徙中停地的丧失会导致鸟类迁徙策略的改变，由于候鸟个体在中停地可获得的食物资源减少，它们会延长在中停地的停留时间以补充能量，由此引发中停地鸟类种群密度的增长，从而对整个生活史周期内候鸟繁殖和越冬阶段的种群动态产生了连锁反应。我们的实证研究结果与建模预测一致。
本研究表明，环境变化对迁徙候鸟生活史中某一个阶段的作用会通过表型可塑性对其整个周期的种群动态产生巨大影响。
This work highlights the critical role of the stopover stage of northward migration in the influence of migration tactics and population dynamics of migratory birds across the whole annual cycle. The authors also demonstrate the key processes linking individual migration tactics and population dynamics.
Loss and degradation of wetlands has occurred worldwide, impacting ecosystems and contributing to the decline of waterbirds, including shorebirds that occur along the heavily developed coasts of the ...East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF). Artificial (i.e. human-made) wetlands are pervasive in the EAAF and known to be used by shorebirds, but this phenomenon has not been systematically reviewed. We collated data and expert knowledge to understand the extent and intensity of shorebird use of coastal artificial habitats along the EAAF. We found records of 83 species, including all regularly occurring coastal migratory shorebirds, across 176 artificial sites with eight different land uses. Thirty-six species including eleven threatened species occurred in internationally important numbers. However, threatened species were less likely to occur, and larger-bodied, migratory and coastal specialist species less likely to feed, at artificial sites. Abundance, species richness and density varied across artificial habitats, with high abundance and richness but low density on salt production sites; high abundance and density on port and power production sites; and, low abundance and richness on aquaculture and agriculture. Overall, use of coastal artificial habitats by shorebirds is widespread in the flyway, warranting a concerted effort to integrate artificial habitats alongside natural wetlands into conservation frameworks. Salt production sites are cause for particular concern because they support large shorebird aggregations but are often at risk of production cessation and conversion to other land uses. Preserving and improving the condition of all remaining natural habitats and managing artificial habitats are priorities for shorebird conservation in the EAAF see Supplementary Materials A for a Japanese translation of the abstract.
•Artificial habitat use is widespread by imperilled shorebirds in the Asia-Pacific.•Agriculture, aquaculture, saltworks, port, power and wastewater sites provide shorebird roosting habitat.•Internationally important numbers of 36 shorebird species occur in artificial habitats.•Salt production sites are of particular conservation concern for shorebirds.•Natural intertidal habitat must be preserved alongside artificial habitat management.
Migratory shorebirds are among the most threatened groups of birds. They rely on natural intertidal habitats outside the breeding season, but, to some extent have adjusted to using man‐made habitats. ...Here, we assessed the importance of coastal saltpans – a type of anthropogenic wetland – for feeding in migratory shorebirds during their northward migration along the East Asian‐Australasian Flyway (EAAF). We combined low tide counts on intertidal flats and nearby saltpans at the Luannan coastal wetland complex (Bohai Bay, China) with Bayesian mixing model analyses (BMMs) based on stable isotopes to evaluate the relative importance of coastal saltpans versus natural intertidal habitats as foraging grounds for migrating species. We grouped shorebird species (n = 24) according to feeding guild and body size, and found that both predictors explained the broad‐scale patterns of foraging use of saltpans by shorebirds at low tide. The guild of water‐surface foraging species (e.g. stilts and avocets), independently of body size, mostly fed in saltpans, and the small‐medium visual (e.g. plovers) and tactile‐surface (e.g. sandpipers) foraging species consumed a significant portion of their diet in this habitat. In contrast, most large tactile‐surface foraging species barely foraged in saltpans at low tide. BMMs showed that shorebirds had a greater reliance on saltpans than did traditional counts of foraging birds in each habitat at low tide. Saltpan food is rich in essential fatty acids, so the contribution of saltpans to the diet of shorebirds should not be considered only in absolute values, but also in the quality of this contribution. Saltpans may therefore help conserve declining shorebirds if properly managed – for example by controlling water levels – to serve the specific feeding guilds that rely on them. While our focus is in the EAAF, the findings are relevant for other flyways and other non‐tidal anthropogenic wetlands.
Migratory shorebirds are among the most threatened groups of birds. Here, we demonstrated that prey items from saltpans are a large and integral part of the diet for water‐surface foraging species, and to a lesser but still important extent for visual and tactile‐surface foraging species characterized by small and medium body size. Saltpans may help conserve declining shorebirds if properly managed to serve the specific feeding guilds that rely on them. A Curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) feeding in Nanpu Saltpans during northward migration. Photographer: Adrian Boyle.
Coastal saltpans are a common supratidal human-modified wetland habitat found within many coastal landscape mosaics. Commercial salt production and aquaculture practices often result in the creation ...of exposed coastal substrates that could provide suitable breeding habitat for waterbird populations; however, few studies have quantified waterbird breeding success in these artificial wetlands.
Here we examine the nesting behavior of the Gull-billed tern (
) breeding in the Nanpu coastal saltpans of Bohai Bay, Yellow Sea, China over three consecutive nesting seasons (2017-2019) by using nest survival model in Program MARK.
The results revealed that nest survival of Gull-billed terns in coastal saltpans (0.697) was higher than previously published estimates from other regions, with an estimated daily survival rate (DSR) of 0.982 ± 0.001 (±95% CI). High nest survival was mainly attributed to low levels of human disturbances and low predation rates, while exposure to strong winds, flooding and silting were the main factors causing nest failure. Model-averaged estimates revealed that eggs laid in nests located on 'habitat islands' with feather or clam shell substrates were most likely to hatch. Initiation date, nest age, clutch size and quadratic effects of nearest-neighbor distance, nearest distance to road and nearest distance to water were all significant predictors of nest success, but the nest survival declined overall from 2017 to 2019 due to the degradation and loss of breeding habitat anthropogenically caused by rising water levels.
Coastal saltpans represent an alternative breeding habitat for the Gull-billed tern populations in Bohai Bay, but conservation management should prioritize flood prevention to improve the extent and quality of breeding habitat, concurrent with efforts to create further 'habitat islands' with suitable nesting substrate.
Protected areas provide essential habitats for wildlife by conserving natural and semi‐natural habitats and reducing human disturbance. However, whether breeding birds vulnerable to nest predation ...can benefit from strict land management in the protected area is unclear. Here, we compare the nesting performance of two groups of a ground‐nesting shorebird, the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus), in the protected area (Liaohekou Natural Reserve, hereinafter PA), and the control non‐protected area (non‐PA) around the Liaohekou Natural Reserve, in the north of the Yellow Sea, China, and identify which environmental factors, such as nesting habitat and nest materials, influence the daily nest survival rate (DSR). We found similar nesting habitats in both study areas, dominated by bare land or Suaeda salsa grassland. However, DSR was lower in PA (0.91 ± 0.01) than in non‐PA (0.97 ± 0.01). Kentish plovers nesting in areas with vegetation cover experienced lower DSR than in bare lands in both areas, and nests built with materials of S. salsa sticks had the lowest DSR in the bare land. Data from infrared cameras confirmed relatively higher predator abundances and nest predation rates by nocturnal mammals, such as Eurasian badgers (Meles meles), in PA than in non‐PA, and this pattern was especially evident for plover nests located in S. salsa grassland. Our results suggest that Liaohekou Natural Reserve protected area may not necessarily provide safe nesting sites for Kentish plovers due to the abundance of generalist mammal nest predators. However, the PA includes about 80% of the nests from both locations. This means the contribution of the total number of successful nests continues to be much higher within PA, with the benefit for the species that this brings in terms of conservation. The variation and mechanisms underlying differences in the nest predator communities of PA and non‐PA deserve further study.
The daily nest survival rate of Kentish plover nesting within the protected areas was lower than that outside the protected areas. Kentish plovers nesting in areas with vegetation cover dominated by Suaeda salsa experienced lower DSR than in bare lands. Higher predator densities of nocturnal mammals in the protected areas increased the nest predation rate of Kentish plovers.
Occurring across Eurasia, the Black‐tailed Godwit Limosa limosa has three recognized subspecies, melanuroides, limosa and islandica from east to west, respectively. With the smallest body size, ...melanuroides has been considered the only subspecies in the East Asian‐Australasian Flyway. Yet, observations along the Chinese coast indicated the presence of distinctively large individuals. Here we compared the morphometrics of these larger birds captured in northern Bohai Bay, China, with those of the three known subspecies and explore the genetic population structuring of Black‐tailed Godwits based on the control region of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA). We found that the Bohai Godwits were indeed significantly larger than melanuroides, resembling limosa more than islandica, but with relatively longer bills than islandica. The level of genetic differentiation between Bohai Godwits and the three recognized subspecies was of similar magnitude to the differentiation among previously recognized subspecies. Based on these segregating morphological and genetic characteristics, we propose that these birds belong to a distinct population, which may be treated and described as a new subspecies.
Pied Avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta) are common migratory shorebirds in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. From 2019 to 2021, GPS/GSM transmitters were used to track 40 Pied Avocets nesting in ...northern Bohai Bay to identify annual routines and key stopover sites. On average, southward migration of Pied Avocets started on 23 October and arrived at wintering sites (mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and coastal wetlands) in southern China on 22 November; northward migration started on 22 March with arrival at breeding sites on 7 April. Most avocets used the same breeding sites and wintering sites between years, with an average migration distance of 1124 km. There was no significant difference between sexes on the migration timing or distance in both northward and southward migration, except for the departure time from the wintering sites and winter distribution. The coastal wetland of Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province is a critical stopover site. Most individuals rely on Lianyungang during both northward and southward migration, indicating that species with short migration distances also heavily rely on a few stopover sites. However, Lianyungang lacks adequate protection and is facing many threats, including tidal flat loss. We strongly recommend that the coastal wetland of Lianyungang be designated as a protected area to effectively conserve the critical stopover site.
In order to provide more scientific guidance for wetland bird protection, this study addressed the dynamics of the bird community sorted by ecotypes, classifications and threat categories from 2015 ...to 2019, and non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis, generalized additive models and the Mantel test were used to examine the relationships between bird communities and habitat types. The results showed that: (1) The abundance of birds peaked in 2017 at 88,258 individuals and then declined. Moreover, there was an inverse trend between species richness and abundance of birds, meaning greater abundance is associated with fewer species. (2) Swimming birds were dominant ecotypes and Anseriformes possessed the highest abundance. It was noteworthy that the abundance of critically endangered birds (Aythya baeri and Grus leucogeranus) and the species richness of endangered birds increased. (3) Building land and farmland had dominant impacts on the composition of bird community. Wading birds and birds in Gruiformes were significantly impacted by building land and farmland, and near threatened species were substantially influenced by farmland. Therefore, maintaining good connectivity between protected areas and surrounding areas is one of the best ways to effectively manage biodiversity of the target area. This research may provide a broader insight for coastal wetland bird habitat management and bird diversity preservation.
Artificial wetlands such as coastal saltpans have replaced a number of coastal natural habitats worldwide and may have accommodated specific waterbird populations in the East Asian–Australasian ...Flyway (EAAF). The role of saltpans in the EAAF as foraging grounds for shorebirds is widely recognized, although their role as breeding grounds for waterbirds is very limited and contradictory. The Nanpu saltpans in northern Bohai Bay, China, are one of the largest saltpan complexes in the world. In this study, we monitored the nesting success (852 nests) of pied avocets (
Recurvirostra avosetta
) during three breeding seasons (2015, 2016, and 2018) in the Nanpu saltpans. The nest daily survival rate (DSR) was 0.970; hence, nest survival over the 27 exposure days was 44%. The apparent nest success was 51%. Surprisingly, 55% of nests failed during the laying period. Flooding and nest abandonment were the main causes of nest failure during both the laying and incubation periods. We found a strong positive relationship between the DSR and nest age, with nests that approached hatching having a greater probability of survival than freshly started nests. We also found a strong negative relationship between the DSR and precipitation, with the highest DSR observed for nests that experienced no precipitation. The DSR decreased over the course of the 71-days nesting season and followed a linear trend. The DSR was also density dependent and decreased slightly when nests were denser. A literature review showed that nest survival in the Nanpu saltpans was average compared with that of other studies and that nest success in artificial wetlands was significantly higher than that in natural wetlands or both habitats. Nevertheless, nest success decreased with the study date, suggesting that that breeding conditions for the pied avocet are worsening with time. The loss of saltpans could negatively affect the population of avocets and other ground-nesting waterbird species; therefore, conservation actions and research efforts should be strengthened to understand and conserve these functional wetlands for waterbirds.
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