Study On Bird Species Diversity And Geographical Distribution Patterns In Jiangsu Province

Jiangsu province, which located in the eastern coast of China, has the most important coastal beaches and large inland lakes, rivers, wetlands. The unique geographical location and rich resources of wetland made Jiangsu province become a major north-south migratory stopover and wintering sites for birds in East Asia. Therefore, it has high value for scientific research and conservation. In this research,14 sample plots which lie in south, middle and north of Jiangsu respectively have been investigated from June 2009 to December 2010. The study was mainly about the variation of species diversity in Jiangsu province at different stages. By using the GIS technology, the clustering results of fauna type has been translate into geographical distribution patterns, and the geographical distribution of bird information has been translated into richness patterns. The main results are as follows:1. According to statistics, Jiangsu province has 467species of birds belonging to 19 orders 74 families with the highest species diversity in the neighboring provinces.326 species of birds have been recorded in this survey and most of them were common species. There were 108 species of birds which exactly existed in Jiangsu province but not found in our investigation. Other 33 species of birds were recorded only in documents and further research need to be done in the future.2. Since 1955,85 species of birds belonging to 15 orders 36 families have increased in Jiangsu province. Among them,34 species of Passeriformes was the most which was 40% of the total. There were 10 species of birds belonging to 4 orders 8 families disappeared. From 1955 to 1976,33 species of birds increased and 10 species were disappeared.8 species increased from 1976 to 1987,34 species increased from 1987 to 2005 and 10 species increased from 2005 to 2010. As the development of economy and transportation, scientific research level and other factors enhanced which might conducive to bird watching. Among the increased birds, 6 species were due to the upgrading subspecies to species.3. According to the results of clustering for type of fauna, the birds in Jiangsu province were divided into five geographic distribution regions.They were Xuzhou-Xuyi Hilly Land Province, Huaibei Plain Province, Huainan Plain Province, Nanjing-Yixing Mountains Province and Lower Yangtze River Plain Province respectively. Xuzhou-Xuyi Hilly Land Province and Huaibei Plain Province have obvious features of Palaearctic fauna and Palaearctic birds were accounting for 68.31%,68.57% respectively. Lower Yangtze River Plain Province has the obvious features of Oriental fauna with Oriental birds accounting for 19.52%. Huainan Plain Province and Nanjing-Yixing Mountains Province have features of Transitional flora. The former inclined to the Palaearctic fauna while the latter inclined to the Oriental fauna. This might because that Jiangsu province located on the boundary of Oriental fauna and Palaearctic fauna.4. Richness patterns of birds in Jiangsu province is divided into four levels. The first level was mainly in Yancheng coastal wetland area, which has the highest richness with more than 400 species and over 80% of total birds in Jiangsu. The second level was in the area from Nanjing to Suzhou in southern of Jiangsu. It has the second richness of bird with more than 300 species.The third level was in Lianyungang, Nantong, Suqian and the areas surrounding these cities. The richness of bird in this level was above 250 species. The fourth level has the lowest richness of bird with more than 200 species. This level distributed in Xuzhou, Taizhou and some area from northwest to southeast of Jiangsu province. The distribution of bird species richness patterns in Jiangsu province is closely related to environmental characteristics in different regions.