Department of Forest Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
PLoS One. 2020 May 27;15(5):e0233121. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233121. eCollection 2020.
The rapid decline of a few Emberiza bunting species is increasing conservation concerns, especially in Asia. However, temporal changes in communities and populations of buntings, ones of the most common migratory songbirds in Korea, have not been quantitatively assessed. To understand how the status of buntings has changed over the past 100 years, we collated abundance data from museum collections and bird-banding records between 1910 and 2019. We also used presence-absence data for buntings collected by a nationwide census scheme between 1997 to 2012. Our analysis showed that bunting communities reconstructed from museum-specimen and bird-banding data were not significantly different; however, community composition differed over time. The Meadow (E. cioides), Yellow-throated (E. elegans), Black-faced (E. spodocephala), Rustic (E. rustica) and Chestnut Buntings (E. rutila), which are still common or were once common species, significantly affected the temporal changes in bunting community composition. There were no recent changes in the presence of Rustic and Chestnut Buntings since 1997, but they caused medium-term changes in the bunting community composition, suggesting that there was a sharp to moderate decline in their numbers in the past. The probability of the presence of six bunting species decreased annually, with the most prominent decline in two common breeders, the Meadow (-2.99%/year) and Yellow-throated Buntings (-1.82%/year). This finding suggests that breeding buntings in Korea are under high pressure, as are the migratory buntings. Moreover, despite its recent population decline, the Yellow-throated Bunting was still a major contributor to the community, suggesting that bunting diversity has also been deteriorating while bunting populations are shrinking. Long-term monitoring schemes across their distribution ranges, international cooperation for identifying major threats and key areas of conservation, and law enforcement against illegal hunting and habitat loss are strongly required to mitigate the on-going decline of buntings in Korea and Asia.
几种黍鹀物种数量的迅速减少引起了人们对保护的关注，特别是在亚洲。然而，韩国最常见的迁徙鸣禽之一的黍鹀的群落和种群的时间变化尚未得到定量评估。为了了解 100 年来黍鹀的状况如何变化，我们整理了 1910 年至 2019 年间博物馆收藏和鸟类环志记录的数量数据。我们还使用了 1997 年至 2012 年全国普查计划收集的黍鹀的存在-缺失数据。我们的分析表明，从博物馆标本和鸟类环志数据重建的黍鹀群落没有显著差异；然而，群落组成随时间而变化。仍然常见或曾经常见的草地（E. cioides）、黄喉（E. elegans）、黑脸（E. spodocephala）、锈色（E. rustica）和栗斑（E. rutila）黍鹀显著影响了黍鹀群落组成的时间变化。自 1997 年以来，锈色和栗斑黍鹀的存在没有近期变化，但它们在中期引起了黍鹀群落组成的变化，表明过去它们的数量急剧下降或适度下降。六种黍鹀的存在概率每年下降，其中两种常见繁殖者的下降最为明显，即草地（-2.99%/年）和黄喉（-1.82%/年）黍鹀。这一发现表明，韩国的繁殖黍鹀面临巨大压力，迁徙黍鹀也是如此。此外，尽管黄喉黍鹀最近数量下降，但它仍然是群落的主要贡献者，这表明黍鹀的多样性也在下降，而黍鹀的数量却在减少。需要在其分布范围内进行长期监测计划、开展国际合作以确定主要威胁和保护的关键领域、以及执法打击非法狩猎和栖息地丧失，以减轻韩国和亚洲黍鹀的持续下降。
