Reclamation of Yellow Sea causing serious declines in migratory shorebirds
In-depth studies have indicated that rapid declines in three species of shorebird that migrate between Siberia and Australia is due to land reclamation along China's Yellow Sea coastline.
dumping site on the Yellow Sea on 20 April 2012. The
material was being excavated from a channel to improve
access to the Donggang Fishing Port. The infilled area
is planned to be part of an industrial park to be built
on an area of intertidal mudflat that was excised from the
Yalujiang National Nature Reserve by a boundary
adjustment in 2012. (© David S. Melville).
Research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology has revealed 20% reductions in the survival of three shorebirds that use Yellow Sea mudflats to refuel while migrating along the East Asian—Australasian Flyway. The three species – Red Knot Calidris canutus, Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris and Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica – nest in different areas of north-east Siberia but rely on staging posts in the Yellow Sea before wintering together in Western Australia.
By individually marking thousands of birds with colour rings, an international team of scientists calculated the annual and seasonal survival of the three species from 2006– 2013. They found that the birds' survival rates remained constant on breeding and wintering grounds, but declined markedly from 2010 onwards during and immediately after each migration.
Led by Professor Theunis Piersma (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research), the team concluded that the declines stemmed from the loss of habitat and food on Yellow Sea mudflats – a result of land reclamation. Between 1990 and 2013, the area of shallow seas and intertidal flats along the Yellow Sea shrank by an average of 4% per year, with the rate of loss doubling towards the end of the period.
"This research", says Piersma, "delivers proof that land reclamation around the Yellow Sea puts many migratory birds at risk". Piersma fears that continuing land reclamation will result in "a further halving of the shorebirds' populations within three to four years. To halt further losses, the clearance of coastal intertidal habitat must stop now".
"Shorebird populations worldwide are declining and their habitats are under stress from human factors including land-use change, but the loss of habitat in the Yellow sea is particularly alarming, " said Ade Long at BirdLife International.
Professor Theunis Piersma is also a professor in Global Flyway Ecology at the University of Groningen, a position funded by Vogelbescherming Nederland (VBN, BirdLife in the Netherlands) and WWF-Netherlands. Professor Piersma and his team are part of the Global Flyway Network, a global alliance of worldwide shorebird-research groups. In 2014, he was awarded the Spinoza Prize – the so-called ‘Dutch Nobel Prize’ for his work on migratory shorebirds. Click here to read an interview with Theunis Piersma in the magazine World Birdwatch.
BirdLife International
11 February 2016
