Assessment of importance of 64 Ramsar sites in China for waterfowl

Abstract

Wetlands, especially Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites), are of significance to provide habitats, food sources and gathering grounds for waterfowl to molt, rest, winter and nest. And the importance degrees of wetlands are heterogeneous owing to the different population and distribution of waterbirds. But the literature on importance evaluation of Ramsar sites in China is limited. Therefore, there is an urgent need to bridge the gap and evaluate 64 sites in China, aiming at priority sites identification and better differentiated management. A new wetland evaluation index called habitat importance index (HII) based on Ramsar Convention criteria was constructed to assess the importance degree of Ramsar site. The results showed that: First, 64 Ramsar sites in China play significant role to conserve waterbirds. In total, there were 177 species of waterbirds found in 64 sites. 59 globally threatened species were identified, and 143 species were supported during their wintering or breeding stage. Moreover, 86 species met Ramsar 1% population threshold. 39 Ramsar sites (61%) supported 20,000 waterbirds or more. Second, a large disparity was found among the HII scores of 64 sites. Top seven HII-score sites were Poyanghu, Jilin Momoge, Yancheng, Heilongjiang Nanweng River, Shuangtai Estuary, Tianjin Beidagang, Shandong Yellow River Delta. Third, through hierarchical clustering method, 64 sites could be categorized into three groups with average HII scores of 0.575, 0.313 and 0.075 respectively. Accordingly, targeted policy recommendation including differentiated hierarchical management and network management approaches were proposed to realize the effective management and conservation of Ramsar sites in China.