Nestedness of waterbird assemblages in the subsidence wetlands recently created by underground coal mining.

ABSTRACT: Nestedness has been a research focus in fields of island biogeography and community ecology in recent decades. Although nestedness of faunal assemblages has been investigated in natural wetlands, it remains largely unknown whether and why waterbird communities in artificial wetlands follow nested patterns. We examined the existence of nestedness and underlying drivers in waterbird communities in subsidence wetlands that are recently created by large-scale underground coal mining in the North China Plain. Twelve point-count surveys for waterbirds were undertaken approximately every 2 weeks in 55 subsidence wetlands from September 2016 to April 2017. We used the metric WNODF to estimate nestedness of the assemblages. Partial Spearman rank correlations were performed to examine the associatio

SUBMITTER: Li C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6430966 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature