The Potential Food Supply of Relict Gulls and the Preliminary Prediction of its Population Size after the Lake Restoration in Ordos Relict Gull National Reserve, Inner Mongolia, China
The Potential Food Supply of Relict Gulls and the Preliminary Prediction of its Population Size after the Lake Restoration in Ordos Relict Gull National Reserve, Inner Mongolia, China
Chao Du1, Li Liu1, Li Gao1, Yongqi Ren2, Shiqiang Wang3 and Wei Liu4*
ABSTRACT
The Ordos Relict Gull National Nature Reserve (Taolimiao-Alashan Nur, TAN) was once the most important breeding place for the Ordos sub-population of relict gulls Ichthyaetus relictus, but there were no more gulls breeding here since the lake dried up in the early 21st century. Since the water diversion started in 2018, five and 35 nests have been recorded breeding here in 2020 and 2021, but the arthropod community in the wetland has not been completely rebuilt. Whether its diversity and biomass can provide sufficient food during the breeding period is the key to the recovery of the relict gull. Here we investigated aquatic arthropods in the TAN and Hotong Qagan Nur (HQN) to compare the food supply and predict the capacity of the reserve after the lake water was restored. The results showed that the arthropod communities are low abundant in two lakes with a total of 16 taxa, but their biomass in TAN was significantly lower than HQN. According to the breeding records of relict gulls in HQN, we roughly estimate that up to 400 relict gulls pairs may be able to breed in TAN. The low availability of food supply during the brooding period might still be a limiting factor for the restoration of the TAN relict gull population in the following years.
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