Changes in the adult sex ratio of six duck species breeding populations over two decades

Despite all efforts,long-term changes in the adult sex ratios of breeding duck populations are still unclear;this uncertainty is especially true for male-bias populations,which are often under the scrutiny of researchers lacking convenient results for the active protection of endangered species.Species with male-bias populations are usually strongly affected by a decline in population size that leads to a higher extinction risk.In this study,we examined our long-term data of the abundance of breeding populations in six duck species(Mallard Anas platyrhynchos,Gadwall Mareca strepera,Red-crested Pochard Netta rufina,Common Pochard Aythya ferina,Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula,and Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula)from fishponds in South Bohemia,Czechia,between 2004 and 2022.This evidence was used to assess long-term changes in the adult sex ratio in these breeding populations and investigate the possible effects of the NAO index(North Atlantic Oscillation index)on them,indicating climate conditions in winter.We determined a long-term decrease of the proportion of females in the breeding season in two of the six examined species:Common Pochard and Red-crested Pochard,which is driven by the long-term increase in the number of males in contrast to the decreasing or stable number of females likely caused by different migration behaviours between females and males.In the case of Common Pochard,in breeding populations,we estimated 60-65%of males in the early 2000s rising to 75-80%in the early 2020s.However,we establish no significant effects linked to climate conditions of the previous winter in these species as a crucial cause of the changes of the proportion of females in the breeding population.

CONSERVATION OF WETLANDS ESPECIALLY AS WATERFOWL HABITAT IN NORTHEAST CHINA

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Behavioral fragmentation of waterfowl habitat and its landscape ecological design in Shuangtai-hekou Reserve,Liaoning,China

Behavioral fragmentation of wildlife habitat is discussed. Using “buffer” module in ARC/INFO, behavioral fragmentation habitat of Red crowned crane, Saunders gull, Oriental white stork and Siberian white crane was calculated in the Shuangtai hekou National Reserve, Liaoning Province, China. The result showed that breeding Red crowned crane, Siberian white crane and breeding Saunders gull are very sensitive to fragmentation factors. Suitable habitat is so little for more than 2000 Saunders gull to breed. The reserve only has a capacity of 38 pairs for breeding Red crowed crane. Two key measures were made. First, dismantles all the abandoned oil wells and recovers the original ecosystem to decrease the fragmentation effect, directly benefit to breeding or migration of Red crowned crane and Oriental white stork. Second, recovers the Suaeda tidal mud flat from artificial shrimp and crab pond in the kernel zone of the reserve to enlarge the habitat area of Saunders gull and Siberian white crane.

Adults have more male-biased sex ratios than first-winter juveniles in wintering duck populations

Background:The long-term monitoring of demographic changes in waterbird populations remains limited,but such information can be valuable for conservationists and waterbird managers.Biased sex ratios can indicate differences in survival rates between sexes.In particular,differences in the sex ratios of fledged juveniles and adults can provide insight into the development of male bias among populations.Methods:In this study,we used data from individual birds captured over a 57-year period to assess the extent,and temporal variability in male bias in nine populations of ducks wintering in the United Kingdom:Gadwall(Mareca strepera),Northern Mallard(Anas platyrhynchos),Northern Pintail(Anas acuta),Common Pochard(Aythya ferina),Common Shelduck(Tadorna tadorna),Northern Shoveler(Spatula clypeata),Eurasian Teal(Anas crecca),Tufted Duck(Aythya fuligula),and Eurasian Wigeon(Mareca penelope).Results:Overall,eight of these populations were significantly male-biased and adults were more male-biased than first-winter juveniles for all nine populations.The increased male bias among adults is consistent with the hypothesis that factors such as higher mortality of reproductive-age females during the breeding season is a major cause of male bias in duck populations.However,such predation cannot explain the male bias detected in first-winter juveniles in four of the populations.The temporal trends in male bias differed between adults and first-winter juveniles in Northern Mallard,Northern Pintail,Common Pochard,Common Shelduck,Eurasian Teal,Tufted Duck,and Eurasian Wigeon.Over the study period we found increased male bias among adult Northern Mallard,Northern Pintail,Common Pochard,Common Shelduck,and Tufted Duck as well as both adult and first-winter juvenile Northern Shoveler.Conclusions:We provide evidence that among wintering duck populations,sex ratios are typically male-biased,with adults exhibiting stronger male-biased sex ratios than first-winter juveniles.Improved monitoring of sex ratios of wintering waterbirds would help to increase our understanding of changes in waterbird demography,population structure,and observed population trends;our study shows that birds caught during ringing projects can be a valuable source of such data.

Species distribution modeling in regions of high need and limited data： waterfowl of China

Background: A number of conservation and societal issues require understanding how species are distributed on the landscape, yet ecologists are often faced with a lack of data to develop models at the resolution and extent desired, resulting in inefficient use of conservation resources.Such a situation presented itself in our attempt to develop waterfowl distribution models as part of a multi-disciplinary team targeting the control of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus in China.Methods: Faced with limited data, we built species distribution models using a habitat suitability approach for China's breeding and non-breeding(hereafter, wintering) waterfowl.An extensive review of the literature was used to determine model parameters for habitat modeling.Habitat relationships were implemented in GIS using land cover covariates.Wintering models were validated using waterfowl census data, while breeding models, though developed for many species, were only validated for the one species with sufficient telemetry data available.Results: We developed suitability models for 42 waterfowl species(30 breeding and 39 wintering) at 1 km resolution for the extent of China, along with cumulative and genus level species richness maps.Breeding season models showed highest waterfowl suitability in wetlands of the high-elevation west-central plateau and northeastern China.Wintering waterfowl suitability was highest in the lowland regions of southeastern China.Validation measures indicated strong performance in predicting species presence.Comparing our model outputs to China's protected areas indicated that breeding habitat was generally better covered than wintering habitat, and identified locations for which additional research and protection should be prioritized.Conclusions: These suitability models are the first available for many of China's waterfowl species, and have direct utility to conservation and habitat planning and prioritizing management of critically important areas, providing an example of how this approach may aid others faced with the challenge of addressing conservation issues with little data to inform decision making.

Waterbird use of farm dams in south-eastern Australia:abundance and influence of biophysical and landscape characteristics

Background: While agriculture has taken much environmental water in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, agricultural expansion has resulted in a vast number of farm dams, almost three-quarters of a million in the Murray-Darling Basin alone.Methods: Over a summer we studied(1) waterbird abundance and species richness and(2) the influence of biophysical and landscape characteristics across 49 farm dams at a large mixed-enterprise farm in northern Victoria on the southern reach of the Murray-Darling Basin.Results: On average, dams were found to host 27.1 ± 71.1 individuals/ha and 1.8 ± 2.9 species per pond. Such densities are comparable to those on natural wetlands. Dam surface area and perimeter and amount of vegetation were positively and strongly correlated with the Rallidae density(birds/ha), but no other parameters were strongly correlated with any other functional group. The landscape in which the dams were embedded had a highly significant effect(p < 0.001) on the number of birds found on a dam.Conclusions: Our research needs to be complemented with further studies in other parts of the Basin and on other taxa, but given at our site they supported similar densities of individuals and species to natural wetlands, and given the fact that there are 710,539 farm dams in the Murray-Darling Basin, which hosts much of Australia's waterbird fauna, it is reasonable to suggest that farm dams are overlooked, and possibly very important, avian biodiversity hotspots. It also highlights the importance of a landscape setting, in which dams are situated, on the number of birds using the dams.

Aggressive behavioural interactions between swans(Cygnus spp.)and other waterbirds during winter:a webcam-based study

Background:Our understanding of any impacts of swans on other waterbirds(including other swans),and potential effects on waterbird community structure,remain limited by a paucity of fundamental behavioural and ecological data,including which species swans interact aggressively with and how frequently such interactions occur.Methods:Behavioural observations of aggression by swans and other waterbirds in winters 2018/2019 and 2019/2020,were carried out via live-streaming webcams at two wintering sites in the UK.All occurrence sampling was used to identify all aggressive interactions between conspecific or heterospecifics individuals,whilst focal observations were used to record the total time spent by swans on aggressive interactions with other swans.Binomial tests were then used to assess whether the proportion of intraspecific aggressive interactions of each species differed from 0.5(which would indicate equal numbers of intraspecific and interspecific interactions).Zero-inflated generalized linear mixed effects models(ZIGLMMs)were used to assess between-individual variation in the total time spent by swans on aggressive interactions with other swans.Results:All three swan species were most frequently aggressive towards,and received most aggression from,their conspecifics.Our 10-min focal observations showed that Whooper(Cygnus cygnus)and Bewick’s Swans(C.columbianus bewickii)spent 13.8±4.7 s(means±95%CI)and 1.4±0.3 s,respectively,on aggression with other swans.These durations were equivalent to 2.3%and 0.2%of the Whooper and Bewick’s Swan time-activity budgets,respectively.Model selection indicated that the time spent in aggressive interactions with other swans was best-explained by the number of other swans present for Whooper Swans,and an interactive effect of time of day and winter of observation for Bewick’s Swans.However,the relationship between swan numbers and Whooper Swan aggression times was not strong(R2=19.3%).Conclusions:Whilst swans do exhibit some aggression towards smaller waterbirds,the majority of aggression by swans is directed towards other swans.Aggression focused on conspecifics likely reflects greater overlap in resource use,and hence higher potential for competition,between individuals of the same species.Our study provides an example of how questions relating to avian behaviour can be addressed using methods of remote data collection such as live-streaming webcams.

Analysis on Business Organizational Form and Development of Waterfowl Industry

Waterfowl industry is an essential part of modern agricultural industry system.Enterprises and breeding farmers in waterfowl industry are new agricultural business entities,backbones for development of waterfowl industry,and main undertakers of business risks and major promoters of industry development.From the survey and analysis of several enterprises,farmers and business organizational form of waterfowl industry,it concluded that the business organizational form and the relationship between interested parties exert great influence on the development of waterfowl industry.According to these,it came up recommendations including optimizing business organizational form and reasonably selecting logistics mode according to profits and risks of business entities in the industry chain and main points of input and technological progress,in the hope of helping enterprises to resist risks,conduct scientific management,so as to promote stable development of waterfowl industry.

Patterns of host use by a precocial obligate brood parasite, the Black-headed Duck: ecological and evolutionary considerations

The Black-headed Duck (Heteronetta atricapilla) is unique among obligate avian brood parasites because its highly precocial young leave the host nest shortly after hatching and impose no post-hatching costs on their hosts. Accordingly, we might expect host-parasite interactions in this parasite to differ strikingly from those of other brood parasites — they should be able to parasitize a broad diversity of hosts and be highly successful with these hosts. We conducted the second detailed study ever completed on patterns of host use in Black-headed Ducks. Based on four years of systematic searches of multiple marshes in Argentina, we found no evidence that Black-headed Ducks ever had nests of their own, confirming the previous conclusion that Black-headed Ducks are, indeed, true obligate brood parasites. Contrary to expectation, however, we found that Heteronetta is ecologically dependent on a surprisingly small number of host species — two species of coots and a gull — all of which are widespread and locally abundant species. Other species are numerically less important as hosts either because they are relatively uncommon, or because they are avoided by the ducks. In the three main host species, hatching success of the duck eggs was also surprisingly low (≤ 28%), based on expectations for a precocial parasite, mainly due to host rejection or neglect. Mortality due to predation on host nests, in contrast, was low for all three primary host species. These observations corroborate Weller’s observations from a single-year study. The combination of a dependence on few primary hosts and a relatively low hatching success are inconsistent with some previous hypotheses for the evolution of obligate brood parasitism in Heteronetta. Instead, our observations, and those of Weller, suggest that intense nest predation in Austral wetlands, coupled with an abundance of a few common host species that aggressively defend their nests and obtain high nest success rates, may have been an important factor in the evolution of obligate parasitism in this enigmatic duck.

Improving the quantification of waterfowl migration with remote sensing and bird tracking

Accurately quantifying waterfowl migration patterns is pertinent to monitor ecosystem health and control bird-borne infectious diseases. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the environmental mechanisms that drive waterfowl migration and then investigate the effect of intra- and inter-annual change in food supply and temperature(e.g., climate change) on their migration patterns. Recent advances in remote sensing and animal tracking techniques make it possible to monitor these environmental factors over a wide range of scales and record bird movements in detail. The synergy of these techniques will facilitate substantial progress in our understanding of the environmental drivers of bird migration. We identify prospects for future studies to test existing hypotheses and develop models integrating up-todate knowledge, high-resolution remote sensing data and high-accuracy bird tracking data. This will allow us to predict when waterfowl will be where, in response to shortand long-term global environmental change.

An optimal management strategy for stochastic population dynamics of released Plecoglossus altivelis in rivers

Excessive predation pressure from the waterfowl Phalacrocorax carbo(Great Cormorant)on Plecoglossus altivelis(Ayu)has recently been a severe problem of river environment in Japan.Local fishery cooperatives are currently suffering from economic difficulties due to decrease of the fish catch of P.altivelis.Local fishery cooperatives and municipalities have been enthusiastically trying to develop countermeasures that can effectively reduce the predation pressure;however,their effectiveness and efficiency have not been systematically quantified well.This aim can be achieved with the help of an appropriate mathematical model.In this paper,based on a pure death process,a practical stochastic control model for population dynamics of released P.altivelis in river environment under predation pressure from P.carbo,harvesting by human,and environmental fluctuations is proposed.Finding an optimal management strategy ultimately reduces to solving a 2D Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation,which is performed with a finite element scheme.Its application to a Japanese river environment successfully computes the optimal management strategy that is consistent with the reality.Numerical sensitivity analysis of the presented mathematical model is also performed for comprehension of dependence of the optimal strategy on the model parameters.