Prediction of the suitable habitat distribution of Oriental White Stork in Shandong Province

Abstract

The Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) belongs to the Ciconiiformes Stork family (Cioniidae) and the Stork genus (Ciconia). It is an endangered (EN) species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and is the national first-level protected wildlife. They mainly breed in the Far East of Russia and the Sanjiang Plain in Northeast China and overwinter in coastal inland lakes such as Poyang Lake in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Shandong Province has recorded the reproduction of the Oriental White Stork since 2003. The Yellow River Delta is the main breeding ground for this species in Shandong Province. The purpose of this study is to explore what environmental factors affect the selection of suitable habitats for the Oriental White Stork. This article uses the site data collected in the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve, the site data extracted from the Species Distribution Database (GBIF) and the environmental and climate factors of Shandong Province as the basic data, based on the Maximum Entropy (Maxent) model and geographic information system (ArcGIS), and predicts the potential suitable area of the Oriental White Stork in Shandong Province. The results show that the most suitable habitat for the species is concentrated in the Yellow River Delta and nearby areas. From the border of Hebei in the north of Shandong Province to Weishan County in the south, along the tributaries of the Yellow River to the west to Liaocheng City and Heze City, there are 3955.63 km2 low suitable areas and 1893.82 km2 more suitable area. The total potential suitable habitat is 7208.72 km2, of which the most suitable area is 1359.27 km2, accounting for 0.89% of the study area. The newly emerged more concentrated and more suitable patches are in the area around Weishan Lake, where there is currently no record of this species. Through the analysis of environmental factors, it is known that the vegetation types that the Oriental White Stork prefers to choose when choosing suitable habitats are shrubs and meadows, and the land use types are swamps, tidal flats and canals far away from roads. The climatic factors that significantly affect the Oriental White Stork's selection of suitable areas are the warmest quarter rainfall and the driest month rainfall. The results provide basic scientific evidence for the habitat management and establishment of the protected areas for this species, and promote the protection of the species' population and habitat.