Using literature and expert knowledge to determine changes in the bird community over a century in a Turkish wetland

Abstract

Context Bird species have been studied and documented abundantly in the past decades and are good indicators of ecosystem conditions, providing useful information of the changes in the ecological state of wetlands over time. However, monitoring data for birds in wetland sites are often disparate and not homogeneous over time and among species, which complicates the interpretation of trends. Aims We examined historical literature from 1835 to 2019, complemented by an expert knowledge survey and citizen-science databases to estimate the abundance of species, and evaluated changes in the structure and composition by average bird abundances. Key results Our results suggested that land-cover and land-use changes have shaped the local bird community, with a decline in agricultural and grassland bird species as a result of changes in agricultural practices. Coastal wetland and marine birds have increased in abundance, most probably linked to the extension of saltpans and successful conservation measures. Conclusions These trends in bird communities demonstrate the impacts of different land management strategies on biodiversity. Implications This methodology can be replicated in other Ramsar and wetland sites around the world to raise new conservation issues and improve site conservation.