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http://dx.doi.org/10.4217/OPR.2020.42.1.021

Estimating Habitat Carrying Capacity of Shorebirds in the Intertidal Mudflat  

Moon, Young-Min (Department of Biology, College of Science, Kyung Hee University)
Kim, Kwanmok (Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida)
Yoo, Jeong-Chil (Department of Biology, College of Science, Kyung Hee University)
Publication Information
Ocean and Polar Research / v.42, no.1, 2020 , pp. 21-31 More about this Journal
Abstract
Shorebirds migrating along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) have been drastically decreasing due to continuous area loss and quality degradation of intertidal mudflats in the Yellow Sea. Evaluating the current habitat quality by means of habitat carrying capacity estimation could be effective in predicting the magnitude of impacts caused by habitat loss and provide better understanding to improve management strategies. In this study, we estimated the total biomass of Macrophthalmus japonicus, a main prey item of curlews in the Korea peninsular as habitat carrying capacity of the southern intertidal mudflat of Ganghwa Island, one of the key stopover sites for curlews in the EAAF. The result of the estimation took into account spatial differences of prey biomass and the available foraging time by tide patterns. Accordingly, it was found that curlew populations account for 30.26% of the habitat carrying capacity. When we calculated the mean biomass of the area and extrapolated it to the whole area to calculate the total biomass, it was found that the curlews have consumed 10.92% of the total biomass. The results show that the habitat carrying capacity of the southern intertidal mudflat of Ganghwa Island has decreased by 7.8% compared to a study conducted twenty years ago employing the same method. This study shows that there can be considerable differences in the results of habitat carrying capacity estimation between different methods, indicating that various environmental factors that affect the estimation results of habitat carrying capacity must be considered to achieve a more precise analysis and assessment.
Keywords
habitat carrying capacity; spatial distribution of prey; available foraging time; curlews;
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