Identifying priority sites and gaps for the conservation of migratory waterbirds in China's coastal wetlands

Most spatial conservation planning for wide‐ranging or migratory species is constrained by poor knowledge of species’ spatiotemporal dynamics and is only based on static species’ ranges. However, species have substantial variation in abundance across their range and migratory species have important spatiotemporal population dynamics. With growing ecological data and advancing analytics, both of these can be estimated and incorporated into spatial conservation planning. However, there is limited information on the degree to which including this information affects conservation planning. We compared the performance of systematic conservation prioritizations for different scenarios based on varying the input species’ distributions by ecological metric (abundance distributions versus range maps) and temporal sampling resolution (weekly, monthly, or quarterly). We used the example of a community of 41 species of migratory shorebirds that breed in North America, and we used eBird data to produce weekly estimates of species’ abundances and ranges. Abundance distributions at a monthly or weekly resolution led to prioritizations that most efficiently protected species throughout the full annual cycle. Conversely, spatial prioritizations based on species’ ranges required more sites and left most species insufficiently protected for at least part of their annual cycle. Prioritizations with only quarterly species ranges were very inefficient as they needed to target 40% of species’ ranges to include 10% of populations. We highlight the high value of abundance information for spatial conservation planning, which leads to more efficient and effective spatial prioritization for conservation. Overall, we provide evidence that spatial conservation planning for wide‐ranging migratory species is most robust and efficient when informed by species’ abundance information from the full annual cycle.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second challenge is that strategic conservation planning should identify networks of sites that capture high numbers of individual animals or large proportions of populations (Xia et al 2017, Baker et al 2018. Species ranges only show presence/absence and therefore do not allow us to identify sites with high abundance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing abundance distributions and range maps in spatial conservation planning for migratory species

Johnston

Auer

Fink

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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“…Therefore, this species would likely most benefit from increasing protected area connectivity within its suitable wintering habitat. The information provided by our models is especially important in the context of our study, as several of the species for which we created suitability maps are recognized as species of conservation concern by the IUCN (2017), and recent literature has highlighted the important role of protected areas in species conservation (Zhang et al 2015a, b) within regions with effective governance (Amano et al 2017), while advocating for the addition of new protected areas within China (Cao et al 2010;Xia et al 2016;Xu et al 2017). Similarly, the outputs of our model can be used to monitor changes in available habitat over time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species distribution modeling in regions of high need and limited data: waterfowl of China

et al. 2018

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Background: A number of conservation and societal issues require understanding how species are distributed on the landscape, yet ecologists are often faced with a lack of data to develop models at the resolution and extent desired, resulting in inefficient use of conservation resources. Such a situation presented itself in our attempt to develop waterfowl distribution models as part of a multidisciplinary team targeting the control of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus in China. Methods: Faced with limited data, we built species distribution models using a habitat suitability approach for China's breeding and non-breeding (hereafter, wintering) waterfowl. An extensive review of the literature was used to determine model parameters for habitat modeling. Habitat relationships were implemented in GIS using land cover covariates. Wintering models were validated using waterfowl census data, while breeding models, though developed for many species, were only validated for the one species with sufficient telemetry data available. Results: We developed suitability models for 42 waterfowl species (30 breeding and 39 wintering) at 1 km resolution for the extent of China, along with cumulative and genus level species richness maps. Breeding season models showed highest waterfowl suitability in wetlands of the high-elevation west-central plateau and northeastern China. Wintering waterfowl suitability was highest in the lowland regions of southeastern China. Validation measures indicated strong performance in predicting species presence. Comparing our model outputs to China's protected areas indicated that breeding habitat was generally better covered than wintering habitat, and identified locations for which additional research and protection should be prioritized. Conclusions: These suitability models are the first available for many of China's waterfowl species, and have direct utility to conservation and habitat planning and prioritizing management of critically important areas, providing an example of how this approach may aid others faced with the challenge of addressing conservation issues with little data to inform decision making.

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“…Since these data were based on published and unpublished sources from ,1986 to the mid-2000s, we updated the counts with more recent count data available in Conklin et al (2014) and Bai et al (2015) for any site for which there was a more recent, higher count. To this list, we also added sites listed in Xia et al (2016) to expand the list of potentially important sites in coastal China. These additional Chinese sites were then cross-checked against Bamford et al (2008), Conklin et al (2014) and Bai et al (2015) to extract any additional count information for the seven species contained in these latter references.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selecting a suite of potential partner sites for the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary to aid shorebird conservation in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway

Mehlman

Fitzsimons

Irving³

et al. 2020

Pac. Conserv. Biol.

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Migratory shorebird species depend on a suite of interconnected sites and protection of these sites as part of a network is an increasingly used conservation approach. Partnering sites based on shared migratory bird species can be a powerful tool for implementing conservation action. To assist the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary (AIBS), South Australia, in expanding their conservation impact across the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, we generated a list of 81 sites to consider for potential partnerships. We developed the list using existing shorebird count data for seven high priority migratory shorebirds that spend the austral summer at AIBS, such as Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) and Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris). We computed a scaled abundance across all species to develop a categorical indicator of importance of each potential site for its shared species richness and abundance. Based on assessments of literature, existing conservation plans, and interviews with experts, we also evaluated each potential site’s feasibility for ecotourism, conservation management, and existing or potential partnerships. This process resulted in a list of 20 sites for the AIBS to consider for possible partnerships in nine countries that met some combination of values for shared shorebird species, inclusion in one or more current site designation schemes, existing or potential opportunities for tourism, habitat management, or partnerships. Additional sites that either have high or medium abundances of shared shorebird species or that have been designated as important by other criteria (Ramsar, Important Bird and Biodiversity Area) were identified. We recommend this methodology be applied to other sites seeking to form cross-boundary partnerships to help further the conservation of highly mobile species.

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Identifying priority sites and gaps for the conservation of migratory waterbirds in China's coastal wetlands

Cited by 93 publications

References 32 publications

Comparing abundance distributions and range maps in spatial conservation planning for migratory species

Comparing abundance distributions and range maps in spatial conservation planning for migratory species

Species distribution modeling in regions of high need and limited data: waterfowl of China

Selecting a suite of potential partner sites for the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary to aid shorebird conservation in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway

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