Wintering Records of Saunders's Gull in Bohai Bay, China

Liu, Yang; Holt, Paul; Zhang, Zhengwang

doi:10.3312/jyio.38.100

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Here we present the case of Bohai Bay in the north-west Yellow Sea, China, strategically located in the middle of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (hereafter EAAF). The coast of Bohai Bay is crucial to waterbirds, especially shorebirds and gulls that make stopovers there during northward and southward migration, or winter there, including Relict Gull Larus relictus, listed as 'Vulnerable' by IUCN (2010) and BirdLife International (2010a), Saunders's Gull L. saundersi, Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata, Red Knot Calidris canutus, Curlew Sandpiper C. ferruginea and Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis (Li et al 1996, Barter 2002, Battley et al 2005, Minton et al 2006, Yang and Zhang 2006, Liu et al 2007, Yang et al 2008. The majority of Red Knot during northward migration, and the largest wintering populations of Eurasian Curlew and Relict Gull, were counted in Bohai Bay along the EAAF (Barter et al 2001, Liu et al 2006, Cao et al 2009.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of tidal land reclamation in Bohai Bay, China: ongoing losses of critical Yellow Sea waterbird staging and wintering sites

Yang

Chen

Barter

et al. 2011

Bird Conservation International

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SummaryThe coast of Bohai Bay, north-western Yellow Sea, is critical for waterbirds migrating along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway. Between 1994 and 2010, a total of 450 km 2 of offshore area, including 218 km 2 of intertidal flats (one third of the original tidal area in the bay), has been reclaimed along the bay for two industrial projects. This has caused the northward migrants to become concentrated in an ever smaller remaining area, our core study site. The spring peak numbers of two Red Knot subspecies in the East Asia-Australasian Flyway, Calidris canutus piersmai and C. c. rogersi, in this so far little affected area increased from 13% in 2007 to 62% in 2010 of the global populations; the spring peak numbers of Curlew Sandpiper C. ferruginea increased from 3% in 2007 to 23% in 2010 of the flyway population. The decline in the extent of intertidal mudflats also affected Relict Gulls Larus relictus, listed by IUCN as 'Vulnerable'; during normal winters 56% of the global population moved from the wintering habitats that were removed in Tianjin to the relatively intact areas around Tangshan. Densities of wintering Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata, and spring-staging Broad-billed Sandpiper Limicola falcinellus and Sanderling Calidris alba have also increased in the remaining areas. With the proposed continuation of land reclamation in Bohai Bay, we predict waterbird densities in the remaining areas to increase to a point of collapse. To evaluate the future of these fragile, shared international resources, it is vital to promote an immediate conservation action plan for the remaining coastal wetlands in this region, and continued population monitoring to determine the effects of this action.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of tidal land reclamation in Bohai Bay, China: ongoing losses of critical Yellow Sea waterbird staging and wintering sites

Yang

Chen

Barter

et al. 2011

Bird Conservation International

Self Cite

149

148

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“…In fact, it is highly probable that numbers of Saunders's Gulls are decreasing as coastal wetlands within the species range are suffering greatly from land claim, pollution and human disturbance (Barter 2002;UNEP 2005aUNEP , 2005b. Additionally, changes in river flows as a result of water extraction and damming may be The two counts were from the Tanggu-Dagang region of Tianjin Municipality (Liu et al 2007); Liu et al (2007) note that there are numerous unsurveyed areas of inter-tidal mudflat elsewhere in Bohai Bay and that it is likely that other gull concentrations occur within the bay.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mainland China : the coasts of Fujian [February 2006] (Barter et al 2007); Jiangsu [late November 2006], Zhejiang [January 2007] and Shandong [February 2007] (all L. Cao unpub. data); parts of Bohai Bay and Laizhou Bay [December 2005 and February 2006] (Liu et al 2007); Chongming Island, Yangtze estuary, [January 2007] (Y. Liu in litt . ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…obs. ); 3 In February 2007 we saw ‘hundreds’ of what were almost certainly Saunders's Gulls in Jiaozhou Bay but were unable to confirm this due to the long viewing distance; 472 were seen there in December 2002 (Liu et al 2007); although there are large numbers of gulls around the Shandong Peninsular coastline ( pers. obs.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notes: All estimates have been rounded to two significant figures. 1 The two counts were from the Tanggu-Dagang region of Tianjin Municipality (Liu et al 2007); Liu et al (2007) note that there are numerous unsurveyed areas of inter-tidal mudflat elsewhere in Bohai Bay and that it is likely that other gull concentrations occur within the bay. 2 Survey covered only part of Laizhou Bay which has very extensive mudflats, many of which are difficult to survey (Liu et al 2007; pers. obs.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Saunders's Gull: a new population estimate

2008

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SummaryThe globally threatened ('Vulnerable') Saunders's Gull Larus saundersi has a small, declining population occupying highly-threatened habitats mainly along the coasts of China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The availability of recent count data from key non-breeding regions has provided an important opportunity to re-estimate the species' population size and this is now believed to be a minimum of 14,400 birds, which is more than 70% higher than the mid-point of the current estimated range (7,100-9,600). However the apparent population increase is almost certainly due to increased survey effort. It is likely that the population is continuing to decline given the significant threats to habitats and high human disturbance levels occurring across the species' range. There are increasing opportunities for coordinated counts of Saunders's Gulls along the Chinese coastline and these data, combined with those being collected annually from other parts of the non-breeding range, should allow improved population estimates to be obtained and the generation of much-needed population trend information.

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