Multiscale effects of habitat and surrounding matrices on waterbird diversity in the Yangtze River Floodplain

Abstract

Context With the expansion in urbanization, understanding how biodiversity responds to the altered landscape becomes a major concern. Most studies focus on habitat effects on biodiversity, yet much less attention has been paid to surrounding landscape matrices and their joint effects. Objective We investigated how habitat and landscape matrices affect waterbird diversity across scales in the Yangtze River Floodplain, a typical area with high biodiversity and severe human-wildlife conflict. Methods The compositional and structural features of the landscape were calculated at fine and coarse scales. The ordinary least squares regression model was adopted, following a test showing no significant spatial autocorrelation in the spatial lag and spatial error models, to estimate the relationship between landscape metrics and waterbird diversity. Results Well-connected grassland and shrub surrounded by isolated and regular-shaped developed area maintained higher waterbird diversity at fine scales. Regular-shaped developed area and cropland, irregular-shaped forest, and aggregated distribution of wetland and shrub positively affected waterbird diversity at coarse scales. Conclusions Habitat and landscape matrices jointly affected waterbird diversity. Regular-shaped developed area facilitated higher waterbird diversity and showed the most pronounced effect at coarse scales. The conservation efforts should not only focus on habitat quality and capacity, but also habitat connectivity and complexity when formulating development plans. We suggest planners minimize the expansion of the developed area into critical habitats and leave buffers to maintain habitat connectivity and shape complexity to reduce the disturbance to birds. Our findings provide important insights and practical measures to protect biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes.

The role of landscape in shaping bird community and implications for landscape management at Nanjing Lukou International Airport

“…We calculated landscape attributes of the class level and landscape level to evaluate the effects of matrix types and landscape within 8 km radius extent from the NLIA on bird diversity, respectively. Number of patches (NP), aggregation index (AI), edge density (ED), mean of patch area (AREA‐MN), mean perimeter–area ratio (PARA‐MN), mean fractal dimension index (FRAC‐MN), effective mesh size (MESH), and Shannon's diversity index (SHDI) were selected (Gao et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2021; Table 1), which were calculated using R package “landscapemetrics” (Hesselbarth et al, 2019).…”

“…were selected (Gao et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021; Table 1), which were calculated using R package "landscapemetrics" (Hesselbarth et al, 2019).…”

Landscape Attributes Best Explain the Population Trend of Wintering Greater White-Fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) in the Yangtze River Floodplain

“…Landscape metrics at both class (to quantify the attributes of a specific landscape class) and landscape level (to quantify the entire landscape mosaic) were calculated as shown in previous studies where species abundance is affected by landscape attributes at both levels [38]. To do this, landscape metrics were selected according to the ecological characteristics of the studied species [39,40]. In total, five landscape metrics were included (Table 1): largest patch index (LPI), patch density (PD), connectance Index (CONNECT), Simpson's diversity index (SIDI), and Simpson's evenness index (SIEI), covering the dominance, fragmentation, connectivity, and diversity of the landscape [41].…”

Dramatic improvements of terrestrial biodiversity in the Yangtze River Basin, China

“…The Yangtze River Basin (YRB) is an important area of China's economic development and one of key hotspots of global biodiversity [15][16][17][18] . As the third largest river in the world, the Yangtze River supports over 900 million people, and it plays an important role in the protection of biodiversity, including at least 14000 plant species and 1731 vertebrate animal species [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] .…”

“…Moreover, birds are sensitive to natural and man-made changes in the environment, and are often used as indicator groups in biodiversity monitoring 31,32 . The YRB supports high bird diversity; its diverse land cover types, including forests, wetlands and farmlands, provide suitable habitats for many different bird species 15,16,33 . China has carried out a large number of surveys and long-term monitoring of bird diversity along the YRB, such as the National Bird Diversity Observation Network (China Bon-Birds) 34,35 .…”