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Changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions

Provision of suitable habitat for waterbirds is a major challenge for environmental managers in arid and semiarid regions with high spatial and temporal variability in rainfall. It is understood in broad terms that to survive waterbirds must move according to phases of wet–dry cycles, with coastal h...

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Autores principales: Wen, Li, Saintilan, Neil, Reid, Julian R. W., Colloff, Matthew J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5058537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27777739
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2091
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author Wen, Li
Saintilan, Neil
Reid, Julian R. W.
Colloff, Matthew J.
author_facet Wen, Li
Saintilan, Neil
Reid, Julian R. W.
Colloff, Matthew J.
author_sort Wen, Li
collection PubMed
description Provision of suitable habitat for waterbirds is a major challenge for environmental managers in arid and semiarid regions with high spatial and temporal variability in rainfall. It is understood in broad terms that to survive waterbirds must move according to phases of wet–dry cycles, with coastal habitats providing drought refugia and inland wetlands used during the wet phase. However, both inland and coastal wetlands are subject to major anthropogenic pressures, and the various species of waterbird may have particular habitat requirements and respond individualistically to spatiotemporal variations in resource distribution. A better understanding of the relationships between occurrence of waterbirds and habitat condition under changing climatic conditions and anthropogenic pressures will help clarify patterns of habitat use and the targeting of investments in conservation. We provide the first predictive models of habitat availability between wet and dry phases for six widely distributed waterbird species at a large spatial scale. We first test the broad hypothesis that waterbirds are largely confined to coastal regions during a dry phase. We then examine the contrasting results among the six species, which support other hypotheses erected on the basis of their ecological characteristics. There were large increases in area of suitable habitat in inland regions in the wet year compared with the dry year for all species, ranging from 4.14% for Australian White Ibis to 31.73% for Eurasian Coot. With over half of the suitable habitat for three of the six species was located in coastal zones during drought, our study highlights the need to identify and conserve coastal drought refuges. Monitoring of changes in extent and condition of wetlands, combined with distribution modeling of waterbirds, will help support improvements in the conservation and management of waterbirds into the future.
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spelling pubmed-50585372016-10-24 Changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions Wen, Li Saintilan, Neil Reid, Julian R. W. Colloff, Matthew J. Ecol Evol Original Research Provision of suitable habitat for waterbirds is a major challenge for environmental managers in arid and semiarid regions with high spatial and temporal variability in rainfall. It is understood in broad terms that to survive waterbirds must move according to phases of wet–dry cycles, with coastal habitats providing drought refugia and inland wetlands used during the wet phase. However, both inland and coastal wetlands are subject to major anthropogenic pressures, and the various species of waterbird may have particular habitat requirements and respond individualistically to spatiotemporal variations in resource distribution. A better understanding of the relationships between occurrence of waterbirds and habitat condition under changing climatic conditions and anthropogenic pressures will help clarify patterns of habitat use and the targeting of investments in conservation. We provide the first predictive models of habitat availability between wet and dry phases for six widely distributed waterbird species at a large spatial scale. We first test the broad hypothesis that waterbirds are largely confined to coastal regions during a dry phase. We then examine the contrasting results among the six species, which support other hypotheses erected on the basis of their ecological characteristics. There were large increases in area of suitable habitat in inland regions in the wet year compared with the dry year for all species, ranging from 4.14% for Australian White Ibis to 31.73% for Eurasian Coot. With over half of the suitable habitat for three of the six species was located in coastal zones during drought, our study highlights the need to identify and conserve coastal drought refuges. Monitoring of changes in extent and condition of wetlands, combined with distribution modeling of waterbirds, will help support improvements in the conservation and management of waterbirds into the future. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC5058537/ /pubmed/27777739 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2091 Text en © 2016 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Wen, Li
Saintilan, Neil
Reid, Julian R. W.
Colloff, Matthew J.
Changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions
title Changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions
title_full Changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions
title_fullStr Changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions
title_full_unstemmed Changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions
title_short Changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions
title_sort changes in distribution of waterbirds following prolonged drought reflect habitat availability in coastal and inland regions
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5058537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27777739
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2091
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