Integrating Wintering Waterbird Movements with Earth Observation Data of Wetland Dynamics

doi:10.11947/j.JGGS.2020.0405

Abstract

Abstract:

Wetlands are among the most productive and essential ecosystems on earth, but they are also highly sensitive and vulnerable to climate change and human disturbance. One of the current scientific challenges is to integrate high-resolution remote sensing data of wetlands with wildlife movements, a task we achieve here for dynamic waterbird movements. We demonstrate that the White-naped cranes Antigone vipio wintering at Poyang Lake wetlands, southeast of China, mainly used the habitats created by the dramatic hydrological variations, i.e. seasonal water level fluctuation. Our data suggest that White-naped cranes tend to follow the water level recession process, keeping close to the boundary of water patches at most of the time. We also highlight the benefits of interdisciplinary approaches to gain a better understanding of wetland ecosystem complexity.

Key words: Poyang Lake; Sentinel-1A; interdisciplinary approach; wetland monitoring; water surface; White-naped cranes

Yachang CHENG,Juliane HUTH,Yésou HERVÉ,Nyambayar BATBAYAR,Changqing DING,Fengshan LI,Martin WIKELSKI. Integrating Wintering Waterbird Movements with Earth Observation Data of Wetland Dynamics[J]. Journal of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science, 2020, 3(4): 50-59.

Figures/Tables 6

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Period	Watermask Acquired date (m-d)	GPS location time range (start/end)	Number of GPS locations
1	11-08	11-06/11-10	333
2	11-13	11-11/11-15	328
3	11-20	11-18/11-22	318
4	11-25	11-23/11-27	305
5	12-02	11-30/12-04	313
6	12-07	12-05/12-09	316
7	12-14	12-12/12-16	321
8	12-19	12-17/12-21	320
9	12-26	12-24/12-28	283