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Habitat quality of overwintering red-crowned cranes based on ecological niche modeling

  • GMGDA 2019
  • Published:
Arabian Journal of Geosciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ecological niche modeling is particularly valuable for predicting the true and potential distribution of wild birds. The core zone of the Yancheng National Nature Reserve (YNNR) is the largest overwintering habitat of red-crowned cranes in the world. Based on a GF-2 image in 2015 and field data related to micro-habitats of cranes, five functional factors were selected and analyzed with maximum entropy (MaxEnt) and boosted regression tree (BRT) models. The prediction results of the MaxEnt and BRT algorithms reached outstanding levels. Landscape type was the most important environmental factor affecting the habitat quality of overwintering cranes, while distance to water sources was the least contributing factors in both models. The response curve of the BRT was more reasonable than the MaxEnt at explaining habitat selection and utilization by cranes. It revealed that superior habitats are principally distributed in Suaeda salsa in natural wetlands. This habitat currently faces serious fragmentation and islandization. This study evaluates the quality of overwintering habitat for red-crowned cranes based on ecological niche modeling. The results provide a scientific basis for the protection of the overwintering habitat of this species of crane, and it is critical for species protection and management planning of nature reserves.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mr. Hao Chen and Shicheng Lv in Yancheng National Nature Reserve for giving us permission to conduct this study.

Funding

This study was supported by the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31570459, 41771199), Natural science fund in Jiangsu Province (No. 15KJA170002, BK20171277), and a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Geographical Environment Evolution, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Juan Wang

  2. School of Urban and Planning, Yancheng Teachers University, Yancheng, 224051, China

    Juan Wang & Huabing Zhang

  3. Jiangsu Centre for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, College of Geographical Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Juan Wang

  4. College of Marine Science and Engineering, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Hongyu Liu & Yufeng Li

Authors
  1. Juan Wang
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  2. Hongyu Liu
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  3. Yufeng Li
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  4. Huabing Zhang
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Correspondence to Hongyu Liu.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Geological Modeling and Geospatial Data Analysis

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Wang, J., Liu, H., Li, Y. et al. Habitat quality of overwintering red-crowned cranes based on ecological niche modeling. Arab J Geosci 12, 750 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-019-4932-9

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