Human harvest, climate change and their synergistic effects drove the Chinese Crested Tern to the brink of extinction

Chen, Shuihua; Fan, Zhongyong; Roby, Daniel D.; Lu, Yiwei; Chen, Cangsong; Huang, Qin; Cheng, Lijing; Zhu, Jiang

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2015.06.006

Cited by 26 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Acridotheres cristatellus, Leiothrix lutea ) (Wang ), or actively persecuted species (e.g. Emberiza aureola, Thalasseus bernsteini ) (Chen et al , Kamp et al ). Bird species were classified as medium hunting vulnerability (1) if they were not preferred game species or actively persecuted species, but were reported to be occasionally hunted or killed in related literature (Li and Li , Wang et al , Xu et al , Zhou and Jiang , Bi and He , Zhang et al , Liang et al , Dai and Zhang ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological correlates of extinction risk in Chinese birds

Wang

Bennett

et al. 2017

Ecography

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China is one of the countries with the richest bird biodiversity in the world. Among the 1372 Chinese birds, 146 species are considered threatened and three species are regionally extinct according to the officially released China Biodiversity Red List in 2015. Here, we conducted the first extensive analysis to systematically investigate the patterns and processes of extinction and threat in Chinese birds. We addressed the following four questions. First, is extinction risk randomly distributed among avian families in Chinese birds? Second, which families contain more threatened species than would be expected by chance? Third, which species traits are important in determining the extinction risk in Chinese birds using a multivariate phylogenetic comparative approach? Finally, is the form of the relationship between traits additive or nonadditive (synergistic)? We found that the extinction risk of Chinese birds was not randomly distributed among taxonomic families. The families that contained significantly more threatened species than expected were the hornbills, cranes, pittas, pheasants and hawks and eagles. We obtained eleven species traits that are commonly hypothesized to influence extinction risk from the literature: body size, clutch size, trophic level, mobility, habitat specificity, geographical range size, nest type, nest site, flocking tendency, migrant status and hunting vulnerability. After phylogenetic correction, model selection based on Akaike's information criterion identified the synergistic interaction between body size and hunting vulnerability as the single best correlate of extinction risk in Chinese birds. Our results suggest that, in order to be effective, priority management efforts should be given both to certain extinction‐prone families, particularly the hornbills, pelicans, cranes, pittas, pheasants and hawks and eagles, and to bird species with large body size and high hunting vulnerability.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological correlates of extinction risk in Chinese birds

Wang

Bennett

et al. 2017

Ecography

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“…Chen et al (2015) indicated that most typhoons affected China’s coastal areas (Zhejiang and Fujian provinces) during July-September, and pre-fledged chicks at tern colonies with delayed nesting chronology were more susceptible to severe weather during the typhoon season. This scenario might worsen under climate change because the frequency of typhoons impacting the Zhejiang and Fujian coasts has been increasing from 1950 to 2012 (Chen et al 2015). In the northern Great Barrier Reef, however, Devney et al (2009) found that breeding colony size of GCT in the long term was not related to direct disturbance from typhoons, presumably because periods between typhoons were of sufficient duration for terns to re-nest successfully.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typhoons, also called tropical cyclones or hurricanes, can cause massive breeding failures of nesting seabirds or disruption of their breeding cycles (King et al 1992, Wiley and Wunderle, Jr. 1993). Chen et al (2015) found that 28% of CCT breeding failures at colonies along the coast of Zhejiang, China were attributed to the synergistic effects of illegal egg harvest and typhoons. There are no other published studies, however, investigating the effects of colony size, in-season colony shifts, weather conditions, and food availability on nesting success of CCTs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trends in numbers of the Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern Thalasseus bernsteini and sympatrically nesting Greater Crested Tern T. bergii in the Matsu Archipelago, Taiwan

Hung

Chang

Chiang

et al. 2018

Bird Conservation International

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SummaryThe Chinese Crested TernThalasseus bernsteini(CCT) is likely the most critically endangered seabird species in Asia. The Matsu, Penghu, Jiushan, and Wuzhishan Archipelagos along the China coastline, plus Yeonggwang County in South Korea, are the five areas where this species is currently confirmed to breed. According to census and historical data collected in the Matsu Archipelago from 2004 to 2017, there was an average of 10 ± 4 adult CCT individuals at the Matsu Islands Tern Refuge (MITR) during the breeding season. CCT nested only in association with Greater Crested TernsT. bergii(GCT) among seven protected islands in the MITR, and the numbers of observed breeding individuals of the two species were positively correlated (r = 0.59,P< 0.001). We used generalized linear models to examine the effects of chlorophyll-a concentrations in surrounding marine habitats, typhoon frequency, and in-season shifts in colony location on inter-annual variation in numbers of breeding individuals and productivity (chick:adult ratios) of both CCT and GCT at the MITR from 2004 to 2017. Average chlorophyll-a concentrations during July-August obtained from the MODIS satellite were positively correlated with the annual maximum number of GCT at the MITR, but not that of CCT. In addition, we found that nest abandonment events during early incubation at the mixed-species colonies were associated with in-season shifts in colony location and delayed nesting chronology, thereby extending nesting into the peak typhoon season during July and August. The effects of in-season colony shifts on nesting chronology and the additive effects of typhoons caused a significant decline in CCT breeding success during the study period. We propose more rigorous monitoring to ascertain the root causes of in-season colony shifts of terns and then determine possible solutions. Additionally, creating educational programmes to increase public awareness towards seabird conservation could prove beneficial.

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“…Managing such populations to keep the harvest at sustainable levels has long been a central purpose (Williams, Nichols & Conroy 2002). It is especially true in the current context of global change, as both experimental and observational evidence that harvest may act in synergy with other negative influences such as habitat destruction or disease outcome is accumulating (Camilo et al 2007; Koons et al 2015; Chen et al 2015). Likewise, in the so-called harvest-interaction hypothesis, harvest might interact with population-level effects of climate change in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient use of harvest data: An integrated population model for exploited animal populations

Gamelon

Baubet

Besnard

et al. 2019

Preprint

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1 9 2 0 3 1 marine and terrestrial populations of vertebrates. As individual measures of body mass at both 3 2 capture and death are often collected in fish and terrestrial game species, our model integrates 3 3 capture-mark-recapture-recovery data and data collected at death into a body mass-structured 3 4 population model. It allows the observed number of individuals harvested to be compared 3 5with the expected number and provides accurate estimates of demographic parameters. 3 63. We illustrate the usefulness of this IPM using an emblematic game species distributed 3 7 worldwide, the wild boar Sus scrofa, as a case study. For this species that has increased in 3 8 distribution and abundance over the last decades, the model provides accurate and precise 3 9 annual estimates of key demographic parameters (survival, reproduction, growth) and of 4 0 population size while accounting for imperfect detection and observation error.4 1 3 4. To avoid an overexploitation of declining populations or an under-exploitation of 4 2 increasing populations, it is crucial to gain a good understanding of the dynamics of exploited 4 3 populations. When managers or conservationists have limited demographic data, the IPM 4 4 offers a powerful framework to assess population dynamics. Being highly flexible, the 4 5 approach is broadly applicable to both terrestrial and marine exploited populations for which 4 6 measures of body mass are commonly recorded and more generally, to all populations 4 7 suffering from anthropogenic mortality causes. 4 8 4 9

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Human harvest, climate change and their synergistic effects drove the Chinese Crested Tern to the brink of extinction

Cited by 26 publications

References 37 publications

Ecological correlates of extinction risk in Chinese birds

Ecological correlates of extinction risk in Chinese birds

Trends in numbers of the Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern Thalasseus bernsteini and sympatrically nesting Greater Crested Tern T. bergii in the Matsu Archipelago, Taiwan

Efficient use of harvest data: An integrated population model for exploited animal populations

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