Changes in Emberiza bunting communities and populations spanning 100 years in Korea.

Chang-Yong Choi,Han-Kyu Kim,Se-Young Park,Jong-Gil Park,Hyun-Young Nam,Yong Zhang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233121

Abstract

The rapid decline of a few Emberiza bunting species is increasing conservation concerns, especially in Asia. However, temporal changes in communities and populations of buntings, ones of the most common migratory songbirds in Korea, have not been quantitatively assessed. To understand how the status of buntings has changed over the past 100 years, we collated abundance data from museum collections and bird-banding records between 1910 and 2019. We also used presence–absence data for buntings collected by a nationwide census scheme between 1997 to 2012. Our analysis showed that bunting communities reconstructed from museum-specimen and bird-banding data were not significantly different; however, community composition differed over time. The Meadow (E. cioides), Yellow-throated (E. elegans), Black-faced (E. spodocephala), Rustic (E. rustica) and Chestnut Buntings (E. rutila), which are still common or were once common species, significantly affected the temporal changes in bunting community composition. There were no recent changes in the presence of Rustic and Chestnut Buntings since 1997, but they caused medium-term changes in the bunting community composition, suggesting that there was a sharp to moderate decline in their numbers in the past. The probability of the presence of six bunting species decreased annually, with the most prominent decline in two common breeders, the Meadow (-2.99%/year) and Yellow-throated Buntings (-1.82%/year). This finding suggests that breeding buntings in Korea are under high pressure, as are the migratory buntings. Moreover, despite its recent population decline, the Yellow-throated Bunting was still a major contributor to the community, suggesting that bunting diversity has also been deteriorating while bunting populations are shrinking. Long-term monitoring schemes across their distribution ranges, international cooperation for identifying major threats and key areas of conservation, and law enforcement against illegal hunting and habitat loss are strongly required to mitigate the on-going decline of buntings in Korea and Asia.

Highlights

The status of the world’s birds has been in a steady and continuing trend of deterioration, and diverse anthropogenic threats are the main drivers of this decline [1,2,3,4]
To examine bunting specimens collected in Korea, we accessed the Korea Natural History Research Information System (NARIS; https://www.naris.go.kr) and searched for collection records of any bunting species deposited in South Korea
The search results included specimens preserved in National Science Museum (NSM), Korea National Arboretum (KNA), Ewha Womans University Natural History Museum (EHNHM), Kyunghee University Natural History Museum (KHNHM), Mokpo Natural History Museum (MPNHM), Folklore and Natural Museum of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province (JJNHM), Gunsan Migratory Bird Research Institute (GMBRI), and Gyeryongsan Natural History Museum (GNHM) that hold bunting specimens

Summary

Introduction

The status of the world’s birds has been in a steady and continuing trend of deterioration, and diverse anthropogenic threats are the main drivers of this decline [1,2,3,4]. Many migratory bird populations in temperate Asia have declined without a clear loss of habitat in their breeding grounds [7, 9]. Threats to songbirds are less studied, assessed, and understood in Asia [7], and little information is available on the changes to the communities and populations of Asian songbirds. This knowledge gap on the songbirds and threats is due to the diversity and complexity of habitat change patterns, migratory routes crossing jurisdictional boundaries and connecting different habitats in distant geographic regions, and, differently from waterbirds, the lack of systematic and consistent monitoring schemes in Asia [12]

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