Shoreline habitats for the migrating birds are lost through reclamation. Image: Nick Murray
The Eastern Curlew migrates from Australia to Russia, where it breeds. The birds stop to refuel in China and Korea during migration. Image: Dan Weller
Bar-tailed Godwits breed in Alaska. They fly non-stop from Alaska to Australia on their journey south, but stop to refuel in China and Korea on their return. Image: Dan Weller
Reclamation of coastal mudflats in the Yellow Sea is driving migratory shorebirds that summer
in Tasmania to extinction.
An international team of citizen scientists and researchers has identified a major contributor to
the widespread decrease of migratory shorebird populations throughout Australia.
BirdLife Tasmania Convenor, Dr Eric Woehler – a co-author of the study – said Australian
shorebirds were under immediate and increasing threat due to the degradation and destruction
of coastal mudflats thousands of kilometres away in northeast Asia.
The study was led by the University of Maryland’s Assistant Professor Dr Colin Studds who
said a critical factor in the decrease of migratory shorebirds was their dependence on mudflats
in the Yellow Sea, between China and South Korea.
“The more a species relies on the disappearing Yellow Sea mudflats, the faster they are
declining,” Dr Studds said.
More than 30 species of shorebirds migrate within the East Asian-Australasian Flyway corridor
from their breeding sites in the Arctic, resting and refuelling in the Yellow Sea en route to
Australia annually.
“Scientists have long believed that loss of these rest stops could be related to the declines, but
there was no smoking gun,” Dr Studds said.
The researchers analysed citizen science data collected between 1993 and 2012 on 10 key
species around Australia and New Zealand, and what they found was dramatic.
Even though the birds only spend one or two months of the year at the mudflats, it was the
most important factor in determining the population trend. “Without this volunteer effort over
many years, the study would have been impossible,” Dr Woehler said.
Despite Australia having signed agreements with China, Korea and Japan to protect migratory
birds, the species have continued to decrease.
“Every country along the migration route of these birds must protect habitat and reduce
hunting to prevent the species heading to extinction,” Dr Woehler said.
The study, published in Nature Communications, involved researchers from across Australia,
the US, the UK and New Zealand.
Dr Eric Woehler, Dr Colin Studds, Baltimore USA
