Work

Assessment of the Impact of Extreme Hydrological Conditions on Migratory Bird Habitats of the Largest Freshwater Lake Wetlands in China Based on Multi-Source Remote Sensing Fusion Approach

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Poyang Lake serves as a crucial wintering site for migratory birds in East Asian-Australasian Flyway, where habitat quality is essential for maintaining diverse bird populations. Recently, frequent alternation of extreme wet years, e.g., 2020 and dry years, e.g., 2022, have inflicted considerable perturbation on the local wetland ecology, severely impacting avian habitats. This study employed multi-source remote sensing data and the spatio-temporal fusion method (ESTARFM) to obtain continuous imagery of Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve during the wintering seasons from 2020 to 2023. We analyzed the changes of bird habitat areas under different hydrological conditions and classified habitat types based on water depth constraints to examine the relationship between various habitats and water levels. The results indicate that both extreme wet and dry conditions have exacerbated the fragmentation of migratory bird habitats. The shallow water habitats showed minor short-term fluctuations response to water levels, but were more significantly affected by long-term hydrological trends. These habitats exhibited considerable interannual variability across different hydrological years, affecting both their proportion within the overall habitat and their distribution within the study area. This study demonstrates that ESTARFM can reveal the dynamic changes of migratory bird habitats and their responses to extreme hydrological conditions, highlighting the critical role of water depth in habitat analysis under different hydrological conditions. The outcomes of this study improve the understanding of the impact of extreme water level on migratory bird habitats, which may help expand knowledge about the protection of other floodplain wetlands around the world.

Source: Sustainability

DOI: 10.3390/su17051900

Authors: Jingfeng Qiu, Yu Li, Xinggen Liu, Junfeng Kang, Yunliang Li

Institution: Jiangxi University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Wetland Management and Conservation

Subfield: Ocean Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Life on land, Clean water and sanitation, Climate action

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896