Publications by authors named "Yamian Zhang"

The abandoned pond-to-mangrove restoration project provides greater advantages than tidal flats afforestation in restoring mangrove ecosystem services and will be the primary method for mangrove restoration in the future. The existing methods for abandoned pond-to-mangrove restoration include artificial restoration through 'dike-breaking, filling with imported soil and tree planting' and natural restoration through 'dike-breaking and natural succession'. However, little is known about which restoration strategy (natural or artificial restoration) provides more benefits to the biodiversity of mangrove macrobethos.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Invasibility, or an ecosystem's susceptibility to invasion, plays a critical role in managing biological invasions but is challenging to quantify due to its dependence on specific ecosystem variables. This limitation restricts the practical application of this concept in the control of alien species. This study aims to simplify invasibility into measurable components and develop an applicable framework to predict early colonization of alien plants within the coastal mangrove ecosystem.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Geographical gradients in species diversity have long fascinated biogeographers and ecologists. However, the extent and generality of the effects of the important factors governing functional diversity (FD) patterns are still debated, especially for the freshwater domain. We examined the relationship between lake productivity and functional diversity of waterbirds sampled from 35 lakes and reservoirs in northern China with a geographic coverage of over 5 million km.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Climate change affects the distribution and persistence of wildlife. Broad scale studies have demonstrated that climate change shifts the geographic ranges and phenology of species. These findings are influential for making high level strategies but not practical enough to guide site specific management.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wuliangsuhai Lake provides important breeding and stopover habitats for shorebirds. The health of this wetland ecosystem is rapidly deteriorating due to eutrophication and water pollution and environmental management is urgently needed. To explore the connections among ecosystem health, prey density, and shorebird populations, we conducted surveys of both the benthic macroinvertebrates and shorebirds in the shorebird habitat of the wetland during the 2011 autumn migration season.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Scaly-sided Merganser is a globally endangered species restricted to eastern Asia. Estimating its population is difficult and considerable gap exists between populations at its breeding grounds and wintering sites. In this study, we built a species distribution model (SDM) using Maxent with presence-only data to predict the potential wintering habitat for Scaly-sided Merganser in China.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The study of habitat selection and diet has a long history in ecology. This is often used to assess the functional roles of wetland in biodiversity conservation. Shifting habitat and diet may be one of the survival strategies during extremely adverse conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Zoning is a fundamental tool for the effective management of nature reserves. A three-zone model (core zone, buffer zone, and experimental zone) has been applied to nature reserves in China since 1980s; however, this model appears not fit for all types of nature reserves, especially wetlands.

Case Description: Wuliangsuhai is such a typical wetland reserve, which can represent most of the other wetland reserves in China, for both its human utilization, and for its function as the bird habitat.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF