Rethinking China's new great wall

Changes in wetland environments can alter the dynamics of waterbird populations. We investigated the effects of hydrological and landscape variables on the abundance of resident waterbirds (ducks, fish-eaters, large waders, small waders, and vegetation gleaners) from 2003 to 2014 in Bung Boraphet, Thailand's largest freshwater wetland. Generalized linear mixed models were used to determine the effects of environmental variables on waterbird numbers, and generalized additive mixed models were used to identify the threshold for each effect. The results revealed that the population of all waterbirds declined by 27% from 2003 to 2014 with highest decline of 56% in ducks. Increasing water depth was negatively correlated with the abundance of small waders and vegetation gleaners. Higher concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the water increased the abundance of fish-eaters, while marshy areas were positively associated with the abundance of ducks, large waders, and vegetation gleaners. The abundance of fish-eaters, large waders, and small waders were negatively associated with the spatial area of waterbodies. Expanding human settlements decreased the abundance of vegetation gleaners, while vegetation infested by Mimosa pigra decreased the abundance of large waders. The study concludes that the maintenance of an optimal water depth and quality, preservation of critical marsh habitats, eradication of invasive species, and restrictions on new human settlements adjacent to wetlands are all necessary to conserve resident waterbird populations. Validating these findings in additional research sites is recommended before applying it to a broader landscape level.

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“…Waterbird populations are declining globally (Hansen, Menkhorst, Moloney, & Loyn, 2015;Z. Ma et al, 2014;W.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing Landscapes and Declining Populations of Resident Waterbirds: A 12-Year Study in Bung Boraphet Wetland, Thailand

Haq

Eiamampai²,

Ngoprasert

et al. 2018

Tropical Conservation Science

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“…For instance, approximately 80 % of coral reefs and mangrove swamps have disappeared, and 57 % of wetlands have shrunk since the 1950s in China's coastal areas (Hughes et al 2013;Murray et al 2014). Adverse socio-economic and ecological consequences of overexploitation of coastal ecosystem have already emerged (Ma et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regime shifts and resilience in China’s coastal ecosystems

Zhang

2015

Ambio

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Regime shift often results in large, abrupt, and persistent changes in the provision of ecosystem services and can therefore have significant impacts on human wellbeing. Understanding regime shifts has profound implications for ecosystem recovery and management. China's coastal ecosystems have experienced substantial deterioration within the past decades, at a scale and speed the world has never seen before. Yet, information about this coastal ecosystem change from a dynamics perspective is quite limited. In this review, I synthesize existing information on coastal ecosystem regime shifts in China and discuss their interactions and cascading effects. The accumulation of regime shifts in China's coastal ecosystems suggests that the desired system resilience has been profoundly eroded, increasing the potential of abrupt shifts to undesirable states at a larger scale, especially given multiple escalating pressures. Policy and management strategies need to incorporate resilience approaches in order to cope with future challenges and avoid major losses in China's coastal ecosystem services.

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“…Coastal wetlands along China's Yellow Sea coast are in crisis (MacKinnon et al 2012;Ma et al 2014) and the tidal flats have been identified as an endangered ecosystem under IUCN criteria . Murray et al (2014) estimate the area of China's tidal flats were~5398 km 2 in the 1950s,~2677 km 2 in the 1980s and, by the 2000s, had decreased to 1611 km 2 , with the average annual rate of loss since the 1980s being 1.8% per annum (p.a.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shorebirds along the Yellow Sea coast of China face an uncertain future—a review of threats

Melville

Chen

2016

Emu - Austral Ornithology

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108

107

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Abstract. Wetlands along the Yellow Sea coast of China, which are a major staging area for shorebirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, are in a state of crisis that threatens the future of this migration system. Populations of many shorebirds in the Flyway have declined in recent decades at a time when there has been widespread loss of habitat and degradation of coastal wetlands around the Yellow Sea. Here we examine current threats to coastal wetlands along China's Yellow Sea coast based on field surveys in 2013 and 2014 and a review of the literature. Intertidal habitats have been lost to land claim or degraded through aquaculture and harvesting, as well as gross pollution and invasion of exotic Spartina, all of which have negatively affected shorebird foraging, roosting and breeding sites. Planned further development, if unchecked, will result in the loss of most of the remaining intertidal area, which is likely to result in calamitous declines in populations of many shorebirds. There is a need for immediate action to curb future land claim and to develop an integrated coastal management strategy. Further research on applied aspects of shorebird ecology is urgently needed to inform future policy development and decision making.

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Rethinking China's new great wall

Abstract: Massive seawall construction in coastal wetlands threatens biodiversity

Cited by 471 publications

References 7 publications

Changing Landscapes and Declining Populations of Resident Waterbirds: A 12-Year Study in Bung Boraphet Wetland, Thailand

Changing Landscapes and Declining Populations of Resident Waterbirds: A 12-Year Study in Bung Boraphet Wetland, Thailand

Regime shifts and resilience in China’s coastal ecosystems

Shorebirds along the Yellow Sea coast of China face an uncertain future—a review of threats

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