Abstract:

Assessing and determining patterns and hotspots of biodiversity are the foundation of biodiversity conservation planning. Situated in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and being the source of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, the Sanjiangyuan region is considered to be one of the most abundant and concentrated areas of plateau species worldwide. We conducted bird censuses in the Maixiu Area of Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve in March, May and August of 2014. We examined the spatial patterns and identified bird community hotspots, and the conservation gaps of current zoning. Our results showed that: (1) there were 89 bird species in the Maixiu Area belonging to 10 orders, 29 families and 57 genera, among which 12 species belonged to the List of Key Protected Wild Animals of China and 11 species were listed in appendices I and II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); (2) there were differences in bird community composition among habitat types and along an elevational gradient, and bird diversity in low altitude, forest habitats was higher than that found in high altitude, meadow habitats; (3) bird diversity decreased from forest to glaciers and snowberg, and from northeast to northwest and southeast; hotspots of endangered birds were concentrated in southwestern alpine meadows, which differed from the hotspots of the overall bird community; and (4) the core zone of the reserve matched the hotspots of overall birds well, but failed to match the hotspots of endangered birds, which might be not conducive to their protection. Our results may help to make more effective decisions for biodiversity conservation in this region.

Key words: bird diversity, spatial patterns, hotspots, spatial autocorrelation, GAP analysis, Sanjiangyuan region