A complete of 132 species of waterbirds had been recorded final yr within the Yellow River Basin, together with 35 species underneath nationwide safety and 19 species listed as globally threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
A complete of 53 websites within the basin had been recognized as assembly the standards for internationally essential wetlands, with 13 of them in pressing want of efficient safety measures.
These are a part of the discoveries of the 2023 survey of waterbirds and their habitats within the Yellow River Basin launched on Wednesday by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Inner Mongolia Laoniu Charity Foundation in Beijing.
As one of many cradles of the Chinese civilization, the Yellow River Basin boasts many wetlands that lie on two hen migration routes: the East Asia-Australasia Flyway and the Central Asian Flyway, stated Su Fenzhen, deputy director-general of the institute.
“These wetlands embrace offshore and coastal wetlands, rivers, lakes and marshes, serving as habitats for quite a few uncommon and endangered waterbirds, such because the black-necked crane, the red-crowned crane, the Baer”s pochard, the Relict gull and Saunders’s gull,” Su stated at a information convention in Beijing. “They assist the breeding, migrating and wintering of many migratory waterbirds, making the basin a important area for the safety of migratory hen flyways within the nation.”
Professor Zhang Zhengwang from Beijing Normal University, who led the professional workforce within the survey, stated that 285 individuals from 71 universities, analysis establishments, wetland conservation authorities and grassroots NGOs participated. Separated into 36 groups, they carried out 5 simultaneous hen counts at 78 survey websites alongside the Yellow River.
The hen counts lined 12 Ramsar websites (wetlands of worldwide significance designated underneath the Ramsar Convention), 13 nationwide reserves and lots of nationwide wetland parks within the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong and the autonomous areas of Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia, he stated. “The survey interval spanned the entire life levels of spring, summer season, autumn and winter.”
Wendy Paulson, vice-chair of the Paulson Institute, which was one of many mission’s co-organizers, and chair of the Bobolink Foundation, stated the standing of waterbird populations and their habitats is a key indicator of the ecological well being of the Yellow River Basin.
“That is why it’s good to be taught in regards to the first-ever simultaneous surveys of waterbirds which have been carried out within the 9 provinces (and autonomous areas) alongside the river basin,” she stated. “The outcomes are informative and inspiring. These knowledge will assist to establish precedence conservation areas, and they’ll additionally present a baseline for measuring future conservation progress.”
Yu Xiubo, the chief scientist of the survey and a researcher with the institute, introduced the primary findings of the survey on the information convention.
He stated the survey recorded 132 species belonging to 10 orders and 21 households. Among these, 13 species are categorized as first-level State protected birds, together with the Oriental white stork, the black stork and the Siberian crane. Twenty-two species are underneath second-level State safety. And 19 species are globally threatened, together with two critically endangered species, the Siberian crane and the Baer’s pochard.
The survey additionally ranked the highest 10 species by inhabitants for every season.
Out of the 78 survey websites within the Yellow River Basin, 53 met the standards for internationally essential wetlands, Yu stated.
Several websites, beforehand not acknowledged as distribution areas of sure waterbird species, had been recognized by the survey as important hen habitats, Yu stated. The Qingtongxia Reservoir Area in Ningxia recorded 16,660 Eurasian coots, 32,110 gray herons and three,445 nice cormorants in the course of the spring survey. In the Wuding River Basin in northern Shaanxi, 6,500 frequent cranes had been counted in the course of the spring survey. In Dongping Lake in Shandong, 650 Baer’s pochards had been sighted.
“Among 53 websites that meet the standards for internationally essential wetlands, solely 5 had already been designated,” he stated. “The others nonetheless must be put onto the List of Wetlands of International Importance. And 13 websites are unprotected areas at current and in pressing want of efficient safety measures.”
The researcher stated the survey revealed the wetlands within the Yellow River Basin are various and face extreme threats and challenges as a result of human actions and intensified local weather change. It is critical and pressing to undertake wetland safety and restoration work based mostly on the degradation and traits of various wetland areas, he stated.
Based on the survey knowledge, the collaborating specialists urged enhancing the monitoring capability for uncommon and endangered waterbirds and their habitats within the Yellow River Basin, and conducting specialised surveys to know their inhabitants dynamics.
“Regular simultaneous surveys ought to be organized to develop the scope of the survey from the primary stream of the Yellow River to the 9 provinces and autonomous areas alongside its course,” Yu stated.
Rare and endangered waterbird species are extra delicate to environmental adjustments. So specialised surveys ought to be carried out for them all through your complete basin to know the distribution and inhabitants adjustments at totally different life levels, facilitating focused conservation planning, he stated.
“The technical specs and knowledge administration strategies developed in the course of the 2023 survey maintain important worth and are worthy of being promoted in additional surveys,” he stated.
