Areas of high diversity for the world's inland-breeding waterbirds

Williamson, L, Hudson, M, O'Connell, Mark ORCID: 0000-0003-3402-8880, Davidson, N, Young, R, Tatsuya, A and Szekely, T (2013) Areas of high diversity for the world's inland-breeding waterbirds. Biodiversity and Conservation, 22 (6). pp. 1501-1512. doi:10.1007/s10531-013-0488-2

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Abstract

Waterbirds are a globally-distributed, species-rich group of birds that are critically dependent upon wetland habitats. They can be used as ecosystem sentinels for wetlands, which as well as providing ecosystem services and functions essential to humans, are important habitats for a wide range of plant and animal taxa. Here we carry out the first global analysis of inland-breeding waterbird distributions using data from 471 waterbird species in 28 families to identify global areas of high waterbird diversity. First we identify the primary area of high diversity for all inland-breeding waterbird species to be in Eastern Africa. For globally threatened inland-breeding waterbirds, the area of highest diversity is in Eastern China. Second, we show that the current network of protected areas provides poor coverage for threatened waterbirds in Eastern and Central Asia, and Northern India. In contrast, there is a higher protected area coverage in most of Europe and Brazil. Targeting the specific areas that have the highest numbers of species and the poorest coverage of protected areas is vital for both waterbird and wetland conservation.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10531-013-0488-2.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Biodiversity; Conservation; Global; Threatened species; Waterbird; Wetland
Subjects:	Q Science > QL Zoology Q Science > QL Zoology > QL605 Chordates. Vertebrates > QL671-699 Birds
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Education and Science
Research Priority Areas:	Place, Environment and Community
Depositing User:	Mark O'Connell
Date Deposited:	13 Sep 2017 14:22
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2023 08:59
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/4912

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