On January 4^th, master candidate Zhang Wenyuan as the first author published a study onEcological Indicators, entitled “Multi-scale Habitat Selection by Two Declining East Asian Waterfowl Species at Their Core Spring Stopover Area”.Associate Professor Si Yali from the Department of Earth System Science (DESS) is the corresponding author.

Using satellite tracking data and Maximum entropy modeling, they studied habitat selection of two declining waterfowl species, the Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser Albifrons) and the Tundra Bean Goose (A. serrirostris), at three spatial scales: landscape (30, 40, 50 km), foraging (10, 15, 20 km) and roosting (1, 3, 5 km). They tested the hypotheses that the landscape-scale habitat selection was mainly based on relatively coarse landscape metrics, while more detailed landscape features were taken into account for the foraging- and roosting- scale habitat selection.

Animals respond to their environment at multiple spatial scales. Drawing conclusions from any single-scale at which all observations are measured may result in an overestimation of those observations that drive system behavior. Hence, multiscale analysis provides important theoretical insight into ecological patterns and processes, and facilitates effective conservation and management. Conservation goals also vary at different spatial scales, from dealing with large-scale biodiversity threats to restoring finer-scale habitat, and hence different conservation activities are required at different spatial scales. While most studies have focused on forest and grassland birds, multi-scale habitat selection of waterbirds is rarely studied. Furthermore, wetlands are of economic importance, and in the meantime are eco-sensitive and heavily threatened. Therefore, assessing the multiscale habitat selection of waterbirds, which are key bio-indicators for wetland ecosystems, provides crucial insight for wetland management and conservation.

The probability of presence and the mostimportant variables for Greater White-fronted Goose(Anser albifrons; a, b and c) and Tundra Bean Goose(A. serrirostris; d, e and f) at the foraging scale.

They found that both species prefer areas with a larger percentage of wetland and waterbodies at the landscape scale, aggregated waterbodies surrounded by scattered croplands at the foraging scale, and well-connected wetlands, well-connected middle sized waterbodies at the roosting scale. These results contributed to a better understanding of waterfowl response to scale-dependent habitat conditions and offer suggestions on how to improve habitat quality in bird-human conflict areas. When managing the local habitat, the larger-scale context should be considered; and vice versa. However, due to the difficulty of increasing the percentage cover of waterbody and wetland in most wetland ecosystems, they suggested that management actions should focus on improving local habitat quality by enhancing the aggregation and connectivity of waterbodies and wetlands, and develop less aggregated cropland in the surroundings.

According to the Thomson Reuters Annual Report, the "Ecological Indicators" impact factor for 2016 was 3.898.

Link:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X17308269?via%3Dihub