Rapid population decline in migratory shorebirds relying on Yellow Sea tidal mudflats as stopover sites

Studds, Colin E.; Kendall, Bruce E.; Murray, Nicholas J.; Wilson, Howard B.; Rogers, Danny I.; Clemens, Robert S.; Gosbell, Ken; Hassell, Chris J.; Jessop, Rosalind; Melville, David S.; Milton, David A.; Minton, Clive; Possingham, Hugh P.; Riegen, Adrian C.; Straw, Phil; Woehler, Eric J.; Fuller, Richard A.

doi:10.1038/ncomms14895

Cited by 391 publications

(394 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Along the EAAF, habitat deterioration and loss of major stopover sites, e.g. within the Yellow Sea, occur at an alarming rate (Murray et al 2014(Murray et al , 2015, and are demonstrated to correlate highly with the shorebirds' population declines (Studds et al 2017). Large birds in this case may be thought more vulnerable for such adverse effects, given their incapacity for a fast migration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body size shapes inter‐specific migratory behaviour: evidence from individual tracks of long‐distance migratory shorebirds

Zhao

Christie²,

Coleman

et al. 2018

Journal of Avian Biology

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Migration is a common phenomenon across many animal taxa. Understanding how migration scales with body size across species is fundamental in the development of migration theory and in making size-related predictions. Although aerodynamic theory and ecophysiological scaling laws have assisted greatly in generating such predictions, their verifications have been limited by a lack of empirical data across a range of body sizes. The recent development of ultra-light tracking devices and its rapid application to migration now allows us to put theory to the test. We used tracking data of seven closely related migratory sandpiper species (family Scolopacidae) along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway to compare their migratory behaviour when migrating towards the breeding grounds as a function of size (50-750 g). We found a marked decline in migration speed (migration distance divided by total migration duration, including time at stopover sites and in flight) with size. Departure date from the non-breeding (i.e. wintering) ground and arrival date at the breeding ground also scaled negatively with size. Total migration duration, migration distance, total staging duration (the number of days staying at stopover sites plus days preparing, i.e. fuelling, prior to initial migration) and step length (distance covered within one migratory leg) were not significantly related with size. Correction for phylogeny showed consistent results for all variables. Besides improving our fundamental understanding of inter-specific variation in migration behaviours, the finding of a clear scaling with size in migration speed and migration timing highlight differential size related capabilities and constraints of migrants. Migratory birds, including sandpipers, are declining on a global scale and particularly along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. This notion of size-dependency in migratory traits may have a bearing on their vulnerability to specific environmental disturbances along their flyways.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body size shapes inter‐specific migratory behaviour: evidence from individual tracks of long‐distance migratory shorebirds

Zhao

Christie²,

Coleman

et al. 2018

Journal of Avian Biology

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“…The population status of and threats to waterbirds in China is increasingly concerned due to China's importance for waterbird conservation along the flyways. For example, in recent years, many studies have indicated that loss of wetlands along China's coast is the most serious threat to migratory shorebirds along the flyway, causing dramatic declines in many populations Piersma et al 2016;Studds et al 2017). Currently, only a few waterbird species (e.g., some cranes, storks, and spoonbills, ibises, geese) have been well studied in terms of their population dynamics Zhang et al 2010;Luo et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population trends, threats, and conservation recommendations for waterbirds in China

et al. 2018

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Background: China is one of the countries with abundant waterbird diversity. Over the past decades, China's waterbirds have suffered increasing threats from direct and indirect human activities. It is important to clarify the population trends of and threats to waterbirds as well as to put forward conservation recommendations. Methods:We collected data of population trends of a total of 260 waterbird species in China from Wetlands International database. We calculated the number of species with increasing, declining, stable, and unknown trends. We collected threatened levels of waterbirds from the Red List of China' s Vertebrates (2016), which was compiled according to the IUCN criteria of threatened species. Based on literature review, we refined the major threats to the threatened waterbird species in China.Results: Of the total 260 waterbird species in China, 84 species (32.3%) exhibited declining, 35 species (13.5%) kept stable, and 16 species (6.2%) showed increasing trends. Population trends were unknown for 125 species (48.1%). There was no significant difference in population trends between the migratory (32.4% decline) and resident (31.8% decline) species or among waterbirds distributed exclusively along coasts (28.6% decline), inland (36.6% decline), and both coasts and inland (32.5% decline). A total of 38 species (15.1% of the total) were listed as threatened species and 27 species (10.8% of the total) Near Threatened species. Habitat loss was the major threat to waterbirds, with 32 of the total 38 (84.2%) threatened species being affected. In addition, 73.7% (28 species), 71.1% (27 species), and 57.9% (22 species) of the threatened species were affected by human disturbance, environmental pollution, and illegal hunting, respectively. Conclusions:We propose recommendations for waterbird conservation, including (1) strengthening conservation of nature wetlands and restoration of degraded wetlands, (2) enhancing public awareness on waterbird conservation, (3) improving the enforcement of Wildlife Protection Law and cracking down on illegal hunting, (4) carrying out longterm waterbird surveys to clarify population dynamics, (5) restoring populations of highly-threatened species through artificial intervention, and (6) promoting international and regional exchanges and cooperation to share information in waterbirds and their conservation.

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“…Although their movements are unidirectional and relatively linear, they must be able to access adequate and complementary resources from the different areas of their "home range" in a reasonably energetically efficient way with minimal risky or costly gap crossings. Habitat fragmentation has an impact when barriers are erected along their migratory path or important stopover nodes are lost so they cannot reach their seasonal destination (Simpson et al, 2016;Studds et al, 2017). Thus, long-distance migrants are perhaps less likely to experience impeded gene flow because of their high mobility, and their movement restrictions are most likely to fall within the category of impeded resource access, albeit at a much grander scale than that observed for more-sedentary species.…”

Section: Fine-scale Mechanism-limited Resource Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of impediments to animal movements at different scales: A conceptual framework and review

Cosgrove

McWhorter

Maron

2017

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim: The persistence of animal populations depends on individuals moving successfully around a landscape, but habitat fragmentation can hinder this by reducing functional connectivity. The proximate cause of population declines in fragmented habitat is dependent on the spatial and temporal scales of movement restrictions. Location: Global.Methods: We present a conceptual framework highlighting the relationship between spatial and temporal scales, and three mechanisms through which detrimental impacts can occur when movement is disrupted in fragmented landscapes: limited resource access, restricted demographic exchange and impeded gene flow. We then review the literature to identify the proportion of studies conducted on each mechanism and whether biases existed in how often each was studied among different geographic zones or taxa. A random selection of 250 articles was classified by the mechanism, geographic region and taxon studied in each article.Results: Our conceptual framework highlighted that each of the three mechanisms tends to be characterized by movement restriction at progressively larger spatial and temporal scales. In our literature review, we found that the overwhelming majority (77%) of articles investigated impeded gene flow, and only 17% and 10% explored restricted demographic exchange and limited resource access, respectively. Work on limited resource access was disproportionately low for particular taxonomic groups, such as reptiles and amphibians.Main conclusions: Distinguishing which mechanisms are disrupted in a particular system is crucial because addressing each is likely to require a distinct conservation management response. We encourage greater focus on the less-studied mechanisms of restricted demographic exchange and limited resource access. K E Y W O R D Sdemographic rescue, food availability, genetic diversity, habitat fragmentation, habitat loss, literature review, matrix, spatial scale, structural connectivity

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Rapid population decline in migratory shorebirds relying on Yellow Sea tidal mudflats as stopover sites

Cited by 391 publications

References 45 publications

Body size shapes inter‐specific migratory behaviour: evidence from individual tracks of long‐distance migratory shorebirds

Body size shapes inter‐specific migratory behaviour: evidence from individual tracks of long‐distance migratory shorebirds

Population trends, threats, and conservation recommendations for waterbirds in China

Consequences of impediments to animal movements at different scales: A conceptual framework and review

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