Changing Abundance and Distribution of the Wintering Swan Goose Anser cygnoides in the Middle and Lower Yangtze River Floodplain: An Investigation Combining a Field Survey with Satellite Telemetry

An An, Lei Cao, Qiang Jia, Xin Wang, Qin Zhu, Junjian Zhang, Xueqin Ye and Dali Gao
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An An: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100088, China
Lei Cao: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100088, China
Qiang Jia: School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Xin Wang: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100088, China
Qin Zhu: School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Junjian Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100088, China
Xueqin Ye: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100088, China
Dali Gao: Authority of East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve, Yueyang 414000, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: Migratory waterbird communities are quick to respond to ecosystem degradation, and they are widely considered to be important bioindicators of complex environmental changes. The swan goose ( Anser cygnoides ) has been listed as a globally vulnerable species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. This species currently winters almost exclusively in China and is mostly concentrated on lakes in the middle and lower catchment of the Yangtze River floodplain, especially in Poyang Lake, Jiangxi province and some sites in Anhui province. In the past few years, the population of A. cygnoides has fluctuated. To protect this fragile Anatidae species, long-term and accurate population estimation is both necessary and urgent. In this study, we evaluated the change in numbers and distribution of A. cygnoides by comparing surveys conducted in 2004 and 2005 with more recent ones conducted in 2015 and 2016. A reduction in the count number of this species occurred in the survey sites. After a statistical Mann-Whitney U test, the count numbers of A. cygnoides decreased significantly at the survey sites in Anhui province and the abundance decrease at the survey sites in Poyang Lake was only marginally significant. The inaccessibility of the new sites revealed by satellite tracking impeded a more prudent and comprehensive estimate of the population change. Satellite tracking technology may be a tool to consider for increasing the efficiency of data acquisition. Information transmitted from satellite tracking devices can help us to better understand the species’ behavior and wintering habitat. This technology has the potential to substitute costly and time-consuming field surveys. Conservation designs and management plans must be created for specific national nature reserves and key wintering sites. A more efficient long-term species monitoring system with improved spatial coverage should be conducted to safeguard wintering A. cygnoides .

Keywords: swan goose; satellite telemetry; distribution changes; population abundance; Poyang Lake; Yangtze River floodplain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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