Response of Herbivorous Geese to Wintering Habitat Changes: Conservation Insights from Long-Term Population Monitoring in the East Dongting Lake, China
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Reg Environ Change (2017) 17:879–888 DOI 10.1007/s10113-016-1087-z ORIGINAL ARTICLE Response of herbivorous geese to wintering habitat changes: conservation insights from long-term population monitoring in the East Dongting Lake, China 1,2,3 1,2 1,2 4 Ye-Ai Zou • Yue Tang • Yong-Hong Xie • Qi-Hong Zhao • Hong Zhang4 Received: 18 October 2015 / Accepted: 24 November 2016 / Published online: 2 December 2016 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract The majority of Eastern China’s herbivorous fronted Geese were more sensitive to habitat changes. No geese overwinter in the East Dongting Lake, China, and significant correlations were observed between goose there is growing concern about how changes in their abundances and both mean water levels and sedge meadow habitats can affect the goose populations. General linear areas. Results indicate that the variations in herbivorous regressions were used to analyze the relationship between goose abundances may be caused by changes in the NDVI changes in the abundances of three herbivorous geese of sedge meadows and the interval durations between (Eastern Tundra Bean Goose Anser fabalis serrirostris, sedge meadow exposure and goose arrival. The earlier Lesser White-fronted Geese Anser erythropus, and Greater flood recession can accelerate the exposure, growth, and White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons frontalis) and their withering of sedge meadows (low NDVI in late January), wintering habitats in the East Dongting Lake during thereby creating unsuitable feeding conditions for the geese 2002/2003–2014/2015. The fluctuations in three herbivo- in the wintering seasons. These findings are important as rous goose abundances exhibited negative correlations with efforts are made to protect these valuable species from the changes in interval duration (i.e., days between complete effects of human intervention, and in particular, the Three sedge meadow exposure and goose arrival in the study Gorges Dam project. areas), but positive correlations with the normalized dif- ference vegetation index (NDVI) of sedge meadow in late Keywords East Dongting Lake Á Habitat change Á wintering seasons. Comparing to Eastern Tundra Bean Herbivorous geese Á Flood recession Á Yangtze River Goose, Lesser White-fronted Geese and Greater White- floodplain Editor: U¨ lo Mander. Introduction & Yong-Hong Xie The majority (about 80%) of Eastern China’s Anatidae [email protected] (total of individuals actually counted, 671,668), especially 1 Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical geese, overwinter in Yangtze River floodplain where they Regions, Chinese Academy of Sciences, occur mostly at the Poyang, Dongting, and Anhui Lakes Changsha 410125, Hunan, People’s Republic of China (Cao et al. 2008). The East Dongting Lake supports over 2 Dongting Lake Station for Wetland Ecosystem Research, 90% of the geese occurring in Dongting Lake (Cao et al. Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of 2008; Wang et al. 2012), dominated by Eastern Tundra Sciences, Changsha 410125, People’s Republic of China 3 Bean Goose (maximum number, 42,164), Lesser White- School of Life Science, Shanghai Key Lab for Urban fronted Goose (maximum number, 24,261), and Greater Ecological Process and Eco–Restoration, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, People’s Republic of China White-fronted Goose (maximum number, 12,275). The world population of these three species have experienced 4 Administrative Bureau of Hunan East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve, Yueyang 414000, Hunan, People’s concerning decreasing trends (IUCN 2013). Both Eastern Republic of China Tundra Bean Goose and Greater White-fronted Goose are 123 880 Y.-A. Zou et al. listed as least concern species (IUCN 2013), with the the overwintering season, even though they all arrive at the majority overwintering in East Dongting Lake, Poyang same overwintering site in early November (November 1 Lake, and Shengjin Lake (Cao et al. 2008, 2010). The was recognized as the arrival time each year in this study). Greater White-fronted Geese populations have declined Three herbivorous geese extensively exploited sedge dramatically within China, from 140,000 in late 1980s meadows, where they showed considerable overlap in (65–86.7% of the estimated flyway population spatial distribution (Zhao et al. 2015). According to the 150,000–200,000; Cao et al. 2008) to 33,000 in mid-2000s competitive exclusion hypothesis, competition may exist (16.5–22%) and to 18,000 presently (9–12%; Cao et al. among these three species. However, short-leaved sedge 2008; Zhao et al. 2012), while Eastern Tundra Bean Geese meadows are the main food resource for the short-billed populations have fluctuated around 70,000 (87.5–100% of Lesser White-fronted Goose, while long-leaved meadows the estimated flyway population 70,000–80,000) in the are preferred by the long-billed Eastern Tundra Bean mid-2000s (Cao et al. 2008). The Lesser White-fronted Goose and Greater White-fronted Goose but are not Goose is listed as a vulnerable species (IUCN 2013) and available for too long (Zhao et al. 2010; Cong et al. 2012; their populations experienced concerning annual variations Zhao et al. 2012). In addition to the sedge meadows, other in China from 11,000 (55% of the estimated flyway pop- graminoids in the Carex-dominated habitats could be also ulation 20,000; Cao et al. 2008) to 17,000 individuals exploited by Eastern Tundra Bean Geese (Zhao et al. (87.5%) in the past decade (Wang et al. 2012). 2010). Since the three species consume a different diet, Recently, extreme changes in climate (floods and they have less competition for food and, consequently, can drought), as well as human activities (such as the large- secure higher-quality habitats. scale construction of dams), have dramatically changed Previous studies indicated that Eastern Tundra Bean hydrological regimes and physical habitats in the East Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese overwintered in the Dongting Lake (Xie and Chen 2008; Sun et al. 2012; Xie East Dongting Lake, the Poyang Lake, and the Shengjin et al. 2015). Sedge meadows that dominated by Carex spp. Lake in the Yangtze River floodplain; however, over 90% of community (Li et al. 2010), the preferred food resource of Lesser White-fronted Geese overwintered in the East herbivorous geese overwintering in the East Dongting Lake Dongting Lake. Their major food resource was sedge (Cao et al. 2008), would inevitably be affected by the Three meadows, though Eastern Tundra Bean Geese, and Lesser Gorges Dam project (TGD). The TGD reserves water White-fronted Geese could also feed on other graminoids during the winter, which may expose the sedge meadows (Zhao et al. 2015), Eleocharis migoana and Alopecurus too early or too late for optimal feeding (Guan et al. 2014). aequalis (Cong et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2013a) separately Such dramatic changes in habitat may result in a lack of when food availability declined. Consequently, the response suitable wintering sites for herbivorous geese, which will of three herbivorous goose populations to wintering habitat affect their population and distributions in the East changes could be different. However, few researches have Dongting Lake (Wang et al. 2012, 2013b; Yuan et al. been conducted to evaluate these effects in the East Dongting 2014). Lake. Therefore, it is important to understand how and to Finding sufficient food resources at wintering sites is a what degree habitat changes influence the populations of major challenge for migratory birds (Vafidis et al. 2014), three herbivorous geese in the East Dongting Lake. and hydrological regime, climate, and in particular, food This study analyzes the relationship between shifts in availability are crucial for waterbird populations and dis- population of three herbivorous geese and the changes in tributions (Xie and Chen 2008; Sun et al. 2012; Xie et al. their wintering habitats over the last decade using remote 2015). According to the competitive exclusion hypothesis, sensing and geographic information system (GIS). Our dominant and early-arriving migrants may secure higher- results support the development of wetland management quality habitats, while subordinate or late-arriving indi- strategies that will work with the Three Gorges Dam viduals may be competitively excluded and need to settle operations and ultimately protect three herbivorous geese in secondary habitats (Salewski and Jones 2006). Another, in the middle Yangtze River floodplains. although not mutually exclusive, explanation is that migrants are ‘‘eurytopic’’ (i.e., adaptable) and have less restrictive habitat requirements during the non-breeding Study area season, allowing them to use a wider range of overwin- tering habitats than ecologically similar but more special- Dongting Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in ized species (Leisler 1992; Salewski et al. 2003). China, consisting of three parts: East, South, and West In the East Dongting Lake, three herbivorous geese, i.e., (Fig. 1). The substantial biodiversity of Dongting Lake has Eastern Tundra Bean Goose, Lesser White-fronted Goose, led to its recognition as one of the 200 global conservation and Greater White-fronted Goose, are dominant species in priority eco-regions in the world (Olson and Dinerstein 123 Response of herbivorous geese to wintering habitat changes: conservation insights from long… 881 Fig. 1 Location of the study area (East Dongting Lake) 1998). More specifically, 14 orders, 50 families, and 335 Human-related activities in the East Dongting Lake species of birds have been recorded in the East Dongting include fishing, reed harvesting, and grazing (mostly goats Lake over the last few decades. Moreover, the East and buffalo), except in Daxiaoxi Lake, which has closed Dongting Lake is a Ramsar site in the middle and lower management during the wintering season. Hunting is illegal reaches of the Yangtze River floodplain in China. The East and strictly controlled. Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve (112°430– 113°140E, 29°00–29°380N) (Fig. 1), covering an area of approximately 1900 km2, is the major wintering site for Methods Eastern Tundra Bean Geese, Lesser White-fronted Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese.