Influence of hydrological regime and climatic factor on waterbird abundance in Dongting Lake Wetland, China: Implications for biological conservation

摘要: Abstract Understanding how migratory waterbirds respond to hydrology and climate is of great importance for providing valuable insight into conservation in wetland system. Dongting Lake Wetland an important wintering habitat the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. However, little known about effects on waterbirds. Therefore, it urgent analyze relationship between them. To better interpret ecological significance, we divided bird species five functional groups basis their typical feeding habits. Redundancy analysis (RDA) combined with forward selection procedure was applied select hydrological climatic variables significant influences. Then, response surface methodology (RSM) carried out identify thresholds variables. The results showed that inflow water level were probably two critical accounting 52.13% 47.87% variation species, respectively. other did not reach a this study. As group-level, different had reflections level. Minimal guaranteed values identified as 3518.82–3736.28 m3/s 22.61–23.49 m respectively based requirements weights all groups. highlighted minimal should be satisfied provide appropriate habitats Besides, regulatory authorities environmental protection agencies develop relevant law or regulation protect waterbird from human destruction especially activities which could change regime.