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Sustainable waterbird conservation in the Yellow River Delta requires enhanced sediment supply
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DOI：10.1007/s10980-026-02414-y.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
River delta wetlands are vital yet fragile ecosystems that support diverse waterbird populations. These habitats face mounting pressures from climate change and human activities, making it critical to identify the drivers and ecological consequences of their transformation. This study aims to examine how hydrological alterations shape wetland landscape dynamics in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) and how landscape changes cascade to affect waterbird communities. We mapped land-use dynamics in the YRD from 1986 to 2023 and quantified their relationships with hydrological factors. Waterbird diversity changes (2013–2023) were assessed using Hill numbers, while partial least squares regression identified the environmental drivers of population changes across different functional guilds. The YRD landscape evolved through two phases: a degradation period (1986–1999), characterized by a decline in reed marsh (from 50 to 20%), and a conservation phase (2000–2023) marked by reed recovery (20% to 31%) but rapid tidal flat loss (45% to 32%). In the past decade, although waterbird abundance increased, divergent trends were observed among functional guilds: large and medium-sized herbivores increased alongside reed marsh expansion, whereas small carnivores declined due to tidal flat shrinkage. Our findings reveal trade-offs in wetland management, where freshwater restoration efforts may inadvertently compromise intertidal habitats, which serve as primary foraging grounds for the shorebirds in YRD. To sustain the ecological integrity of deltaic landscapes and their associated waterbird communities, integrated eco-hydrological management is required, along with an enhanced sediment supply (215% of current levels).
Keywords:
Waterbirds
Delta wetlands
Sediment
Sustainable conservation
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