Temporal responses of the wintering waterbird communities in Shengjin Lake to environmental factors revealed by high-frequency intelligent monitoring system

Exploring dynamic responses of wildlife to habitat changes is vital to inform conservation strategies. However, monitoring frequency is often limited for wild animals, impeding fine-grained understanding of their temporal responses. We leveraged the intelligent monitoring system established around Shengjin Lake, Anhui Province, China, to conduct remote and high-frequency monitoring of wintering waterbirds across the wintering season. Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) and Redundancy Analysis (RDA) were used to test responses of the waterbird communities to the varying environmental factors across wintering stages. The results showed that both total waterbird abundance and community species composition exhibited significant stage-specific fluctuations. In early winter, areas with larger mudflat extent and higher Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) supported greater total abundance and species richness. Geese were positively associated with grassland area, whereas deep-water foragers were positively associated with open-water area. In mid-winter, mudflat area and NDVI remained important factors influencing total abundance, while species richness was positively correlated with grassland area. Geese abundance was more closely associated with patches of higher NDVI, whereas large waders, shorebirds, and deep-water foragers were positively correlated with open-water area. In late winter, total abundance was positively correlated with distance from roads and negatively correlated with open water area. Geese and large waders also showed a tendency to occur farther away from roads. Overall, wintering waterbirds exhibited different emphases on resource use and disturbance avoidance across different stages. The high-frequency remote monitoring in this study revealed the temporal dynamics of wintering waterbirds’ responses to different environmental factors, providing fine-grained scientific evidence for the management and conservation of the birds and their habitats.