Wetland Research in Northeast China

As the banded Siberian Cranes continue to move through Northeast China, our blog posting this week focuses on the region's wetlands. The following update is by Dr. Su Liying (pictured in the front of the boat in the image below), who is studying the wetlands on the Songnen Plain, an important area for waterbirds (our banded chicks have rested in this area over the last few weeks). Liying is working with Chinese colleagues to survey the plants and wetlands within Zhalong Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang Province. Through this project, researchers are mapping the ditches and dikes within the reserve (developed to move water to nearby cities) to help design water releases that benefit the wetlands and waterbirds, such as cranes.

While working in the wetlands, researchers must walk on mats of vegetation (below), which can be very difficult!

"In recent years, with growing human demands for water, many wetlands are shrinking in northern China, and some are disappearing. I have studied the wetlands on the Songnen Plain (below), important for cranes and other waterbirds in the breeding season and for Siberian Cranes stopping on migration to and from the Siberian tundra where they breed. Satellite images make it clear that, aside from Zhalong Marsh, the largest of these wetlands now lie near Daqing. In particular, sizable wetlands lie north of Daqing Reservoir and extend east to Hongqi Reservoir. These wetlands have survived and grown, due to the protection of the city's sources of drinking water and gradual seepage from the reservoirs. A broad range of wet meadows and grasslands lie adjacent. Varying rainfall creates dynamic shifts each year among open water lakes, reed marshes, wet meadows, and grasslands providing different types of habitat for many birds.

These wetlands play a similar role to well known wetlands, such as the wetlands within the Zhalong and Xianghai Nature Reserves. Last fall, I was lucky to visit Daqing and see Siberian, Red-crowned, Hooded and White-naped Cranes with many other species of ducks and migratory birds. Now these wetlands are being considered for protection, for the sake of the migratory cranes and other birds."