Volume 6 Issue 1
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Meng Zheng, Lizhi Zhou, Niannian Zhao, Wenbin Xu. 2015: Effects of variation in food resources on foraging habitat use by wintering Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha). Avian Research, 6(1): 11. DOI: 10.1186/s40657-015-0020-3
Citation: Meng Zheng, Lizhi Zhou, Niannian Zhao, Wenbin Xu. 2015: Effects of variation in food resources on foraging habitat use by wintering Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha). Avian Research, 6(1): 11. DOI: 10.1186/s40657-015-0020-3
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Effects of variation in food resources on foraging habitat use by wintering Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha)

  • 1.

    School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, 111 Jiulong Road, Hefei 230601, China

  • 2.

    Institute of Biodiversity and Wetland Ecology, Anhui University, 111 Jiulong Road, Hefei 230601, China

  • 3.

    Anhui Biodiversity Information Center, 111 Jiulong Road, Hefei 230601, China

  • 4.

    Shengjin Lake National Nature Reserve of Anhui Province, Dongzhi 247200, China

More Information
  • Corresponding author:

    Lizhi Zhou, zhoulz@ahu.edu.cn

  • Received Date: 30 Sep 2014
  • Accepted Date: 15 Apr 2015
  • Available Online: 24 Apr 2022
  • Published Date: 30 Jun 2015
    Abstract
  • Background 

    The ideal habitat use of waterbirds can be considered to be fixed, but current habitat use depends on environmental conditions, especially those of food characteristics, considered crucial to their use of habitats. Understanding how waterbirds respond to variation in food availability at degraded wetland sites and change their habitat use patterns over spatial and temporal scales should direct future conservation planning. The Objectives of this study were to identify these spatial-temporal foraging habitat use patterns of Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha) and their relationship with food characteristics in the severely degraded wetlands of the Shengjin and Caizi lakes along with the Yangtze River floodplain.

    Methods 

    We investigated the changes in food characteristics, relative abundance and density of Hooded Cranes in various habitat types across three winter periods from November 2012 to April 2013. We examined the effect of these winter periods and habitat types on the pattern of use by the cranes and explored the relationship between these patterns and food characteristics using linear regression.

    Results 

    The food characteristics and habitat use clearly changed over spatial-temporal scales. In the early and mid-winter periods, the most abundant, accessible and frequented food resources were found in paddy fields, while in the late period the more abundant food were available in meadows, which then replaced the paddy fields. There were fewer effects of winter periods, habitat types and their interactions on habitat use patterns except for the effect of habitat types on the relative abundance, determined as a function of food abundance, but independent of food depth and sediment permeability.

    Conclusions 

    In response to the degradation and loss of lake wetlands, the cranes shifted their habitat use patterns by making tradeoffs between food abundance and accessibility over spatial-temporal scales that facilitated their survival in the mosaic of these lake wetlands.

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