Effects of aquaculture on the maintenance of waterbird populations

Abstract

The global aquaculture industry has expanded rapidly and is increasingly important for maintaining food security and providing habitat for many waterbirds. Clarifying how waterbirds use aquafarms and how aquafarm use affects waterbird population maintenance can help improve management of the aquafarm landscape such that it can provide habitat for waterbirds. We investigated aquafarm use by waterbirds in China, the world's largest producer of aquaculture products. We used data from the literature on and expert knowledge (questionnaire survey) of waterbird use of aquafarms in China and Bayesian phylogenetic generalized linear mixed models to analyze the relationship between the degree of aquafarm use and population trends of waterbirds. Sixty‐nine percent of waterbird species in China have been recorded at aquafarms. Approximately one quarter of all waterbird species and about the same proportion of threatened species were found to forage at aquafarms, consuming either cultured aquatic products or other food stuffs. In general, species with a high degree of aquafarm use were unlikely to exhibit a population decline over the past 2 decades, when rapid loss of natural habitat occurred in China. This relationship was not detected in threatened species, despite there being no significant difference in the degree of aquafarm use between threatened and nonthreatened species. Our results suggest that the large and expanding aquaculture industry is important for maintaining waterbird populations in China. However, aquafarms are not a replacement for natural habitats because threatened species benefited less from aquafarm use. Given that aquafarms often negatively affect natural wetlands, the degree to which aquafarms compensate for natural habitat loss probably depends on the quality of aquafarm habitat and the habitat requirements of waterbirds. We recommend an integrated ecological and economic analysis to formulate management policies that help conserve wildlife within the constraints and opportunities associated with maintaining human livelihoods.

Habitat utilization of the Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) wintering in the Yancheng National Nature Reserve: relative importance of artificial habitats

“…Furthermore, aquaculture ponds were vital foraging habitats for this species. In some regions, aquaculture ponds and agricultural channels could supply spoonbills with sufficient prey items (Walton et al, 2015;Cheng et al, 2022). Fish, crabs, and snails could be obtained from aquaculture ponds when these food resources were available.…”

Spatiotemporal variations in migratory bird diversity and abundance along the coast of Gochang getbol

“…Chinese egrets also showed low abundance at zone2 and little occurrence at zone1. Watetrbirds utilize artificial habitats including aquaculture ponds and salt pans/ponds in coastal areas [30,60,[77][78][79][80][81]. They can also be abundant and diverse in areas with extensive aquaculture ponds [30].…”

Assessing shorebird mortalities due to razor clam aquaculture at key migratory stopover sites in southeastern China

“…This is especially the case in China, which is now the world's largest producer of food derived from aquaculture, accounting for 58% of global aquaculture volume in 2017 (Mao et al., 2019; Naylor et al., 2021). Aquaculture farms can provide useful foraging habitats for some waterbirds (Green et al., 2015), and, indeed, some species benefit from using these landscapes (Cheng et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2021). However, aquaculture also comes with negative environmental impacts, including pollution (Cao et al., 2007; He et al., 2016), the spread of diseases or parasites within aquaculture facilities (Lafferty et al., 2015; Murray & Peeler, 2005), and the loss of natural foraging habitats due to the construction of aquaculture facilities (Duan et al., 2021).…”