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Distribution and Long-Term Population Trends of Wintering Waterbirds in Poyang Lake, China

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Abstract

Although total wintering waterbirds have increased in Poyang Lake, some groups or species might have declined. Identifying declining groups and species will help to optimize conservation strategies. In addition, knowledge of waterbird distribution is required to identify priority areas for protection. In this study, we aimed to explore long-term population trends of waterbird groups and species and to investigate waterbird distribution in Poyang Lake by integrating survey data from 1996/1997 to 2014/2015. Poyang Lake Nature Reserve, Duchang and Nanji Wetland Nature Reserve had high waterbird richness and abundance and high proportion of IUCN endangered species, thus they are important areas for waterbird protection. An important limitation to waterbird protection in the three areas is lack of management rights of most sub-lakes. Most waterbird groups in Poyang Lake have grown, but ducks have declined. Hunting and the decline of aquatic vegetation might be driving the duck declines. In addition, White-naped Crane (Grus vipio), Spot-billed Duck (Anas poecilorhyncha) and Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) have declined. While we believe the data presented here indicate general trends in groups and species, the analyses suffered from variation in methods used in different surveys. We advocate long-term waterbird monitoring using standardized methods to better understand waterbirds’ population dynamics.

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Acknowledgements

This is part of Wenjuan Wang’s postdoctoral work at Fudan University. We thank Gang Ge, Binsong Jin and Shu Li from Nanchang University for help during manuscript writing. We also thank Shuhua Qi from Jiangxi Normal University for providing the base map of Poyang Lake. This study is funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (No. 20161BAB214158), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31401969, 31772480) and the Opening Fund of Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Environment and Resource Utilization (Nanchang University; No. PYH2015-07) to WW, and the “Gan-Po Talent 555” Project of Jiangxi Province to JDF.

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  1. Center for Watershed Ecology, Institute of Life Science and School of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China

    Wenjuan Wang & James D. Fraser

  2. Institute of Biodiversity Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Wenjuan Wang & Jiakuan Chen

  3. Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Environment and Resource Utilization, Ministry of Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China

    Wenjuan Wang

  4. National Ecosystem Research Station of Jiangxi Poyang Lake Wetland, Nanchang, 330038, China

    Wenjuan Wang

  5. Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech University, 310 West Campus Drive, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    James D. Fraser

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  1. Wenjuan Wang
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Wang, W., Fraser, J.D. & Chen, J. Distribution and Long-Term Population Trends of Wintering Waterbirds in Poyang Lake, China. Wetlands 39 (Suppl 1), 125–135 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0981-6

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