Remote Observation in Habitat Suitability Changes for Waterbirds in the West Songnen Plain, China

Yanlin Tian, Zongming Wang, Dehua Mao, Lin Li, Mingyue Liu, Mingming Jia, Weidong Man and Chunyan Lu
Additional contact information
Yanlin Tian: Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Zongming Wang: Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Dehua Mao: Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Lin Li: Department of Earth Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
Mingyue Liu: Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Mingming Jia: Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Weidong Man: Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Chunyan Lu: College of Computer and Information, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: Being one of the most important habitats for waterbirds, China’s West Songnen Plain has experienced substantial damage to its ecosystem, especially the loss and degradation of wetlands and grasslands due to anthropogenic disturbances and climate change. These occurrences have led to an obvious decrease in waterbird species and overall population size. Periodic and timely monitoring of changes in habitat suitability and understanding the potential driving factors for waterbirds are essential for maintaining regional ecological security. In this study, land cover changes from 2000 to 2015 in this eco-sensitive plain were examined using Landsat images and an object-based classification method. Four groups of environmental factors, including human disturbance, water situation, food availability, and shelter safety, characterized by remote sensing data were selected to develop a habitat suitability index (HSI) for assessing habitat suitability for waterbirds. HSI was further classified into four grades (optimum, good, general, and poor), and their spatiotemporal patterns were documented from 2000 to 2015. Our results revealed that cropland expansion and wetland shrinkage were the dominant land cover changes. Waterbird habitat areas in the optimum grade experienced a sharp decline by 7195 km 2 . The habitat area in good suitability experienced reduction at a change rate of −8.64%, from 38,672 km 2 to 35,331 km 2 . In addition, waterbird habitats in the general and poor grades increased overall by 10.31%. More specifically, the total habitat areas with optimum suitable grade, in five national nature reserves over the study region, decreased by 12.21%, while habitat areas with poor suitable grade increased by 3.89%. Changes in habitat suitability could be largely attributed to the increase in human disturbance, including agricultural cultivation from wetlands and grasslands and the expansion of built-up lands. Our findings indicate that additional attention should be directed towards reducing human impact on habitat suitability for sustainable ecosystems.

Keywords: habitat suitability for waterbirds; remote sensing; land cover change; the West Songnen Plain of China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1552/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1552/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1552-:d:213854

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().