Potential impacts of invasive Spartina alterniflora on spring bird communities at Chongming Dongtan, a Chinese wetland of international importance

By Xiaojing Gan, Yinting Cai, C. Choi, Zhijun Ma, Jia-kuan Chen, Bo Li. 2009

135 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Invasive smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora, hereafter Spartina) has been expanding rapidly in the estuarine wetlands at Chongming Dongtan (East China) at the expense of native sea-bulrush (Scirpus mariqueter, hereafter Scirpus) and common reed (Phragmites australis, hereafter Phragmites). To examine the potential impacts of the Spartina invasion on bird diversity, we compared the abundance and species richness of birds in habitats created by Spartina, Phragmites, Spartina mixed with Phragmites, Scirpus, and the bare intertidal zone at Chongming Dongtan in spring 2008. Most birds were recorded in the native habitats, with songbirds and breeding birds being most abundant in the Phragmites habitats, and waterbirds and migrants being most abundant in the Scirpus habitats and bare intertidal zone. Both species number and population densities of birds were lower in the exotic Spartina habitats than in the other four habitats. Although some songbirds and breeding birds used the Spartina-invaded habitats, and even preferred Spartina-invaded habitats to Scirpus habitats and bare intertidal zone, their densities were lower in the Spartina-invaded habitats than in the native Phragmites habitats. This might have resulted from the dense Spartina stands restricting bird movement and providing insufficient useable food for most birds. We conclude that the spread of exotic Spartina has negative impacts on local bird communities. Because Chongming Dongtan is an important stopover site for energy replenishment of shorebirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, urgent measures are needed to control further spread of Spartina and to restore the native habitats for birds.

Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/06a46badbdb7d5444ad6efea95bec91ab061b536

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. Petr Pyšek
2. P. Genovesi
3. V. Jarošı́k
4. D. Strong
5. D. Ayres
6. Zhijun Ma
7. D. Richardson
8. John R. U. Wilson

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. Petr Pyšek
2. V. Jarošı́k
3. P. Genovesi
4. D. Strong
5. D. Richardson
6. Jan Pergl
7. M. Vilà
8. P. Hulme

In Oceanography

1. D. Ayres
2. D. Strong
3. Petr Pyšek
4. V. Jarošı́k

Citations in the corpus

• Ecological and Evolutionary Misadventures of Spartina (2013, background): “Invasive S. alterniflora displaced Scirpus, Phragmites, and resident passerine birds that nest in these native plants in the Yangtze River estuary of China (Li et al. 2009, Gan et al. 2009).”
• Shorebirds along the Yellow Sea coast of China face an uncertain future—a review of threats (2016, background): “…has negatively affected shorebirds by removing roosting sites and smothering foraging grounds, as well as potentially changing sediment conditions in adjacent intertidal areas (Gan et al. 2009; Ge et al. 2009); shellfishers also are becoming increasingly concerned about the loss of fishing grounds.”
• An inventory of invasive alien species in China (2012, background): “Several papers revealed negative effects of Spartina alterniflora on native plants, birds, and macrobenthic invertebrate communities (reviews by An et al. 2007, Li et al. 2009, Gan et al. 2009, Xie and Gao 2009).”