Changes of the Wetland Landscape and the Consequent Impacts on the Waterbirds in Western Songnen Plain

Abstract

Abstract Wetland have been shrinking rapidly in area and degrading in functioning. These all hold back the sustainable development of human communities and caused globe changes. Taken Western Songnen Plain as a case study, a series of landscape pattern metrics were selectively used to quantify the wetland changes. The correlation between the acreage losses of wetland and the number of waterbirds was studied based on the statistical data of waterbirds. The results showed that the wetlands had undergone substantial loss in area and fragmented during the nearly 50 years in the study area. The changes of the wetlands exerted impacts on the waterbirds which depend on the wetlands. The waterbirds changed in two ways: Waterbirds dropped rapidly in number at the first stage, then come down gently. Secondly, waterbirds declined gently in number at the first time period, then dropped rapidly. From the study, we concluded that wetlands had been shrinking in area and fragmented and partly accounted for decline and even extinctions of waterbirds during the nearly 50 years during the study period.