Bird Community Structure and Protection Measures under Various Habitats in West Dongtinghu Lake

For figuring out the influence of human activities on bird community structure and looking for the protection measures of bird habitats, the study was performed in November, 2013 in West Dongtinghu Lake National Nature Reserve. Five transects and quadrats were set up in 2 natural habitats: open waters and natural beaches, and 3 habitats with human disturbance: Phragmites australis fields, poplar woods and residential place. The species name, community size, behavior were recorded in each habitat. And the community diversity indices, evenness indices, dominance index and species encounter probability were calculated. Total of 39 species belonging to 11 orders and 24 families were recorded. Eight families and 15 species were recorded in Passerine order and the species number was the highest in all orders. Four species of Ardeidae were recorded and the species number was the highest in all family. The number of Palaearctic birds was the highest in geographic distribution pattern. The winter resident and resident birds had the highest number of species in the residence habitat, and over half of the total birds were protected species based on the survey data. The bird community diversity, differences and similarity of community structure in different habitats were analyzed.The result showed that the community diversity index, evenness index and species encounter probability between open waters and natural beaches were higher than that in residential place and poplar woods. The community diversity index, evenness index and encounter probability in Phragmites australis fields were higher than those in other habitats, but the dominance index was the lowest. The dominance indices in the residential place and poplar woods were higher. But the community diversity index, evenness index and species encounter probability were lower than those in other habitats. The human source power of propaganda education, restoring farmland and popular woods to wetlands and lakes should be strengthen in order to protect the birds in the West Dongtinghu Lake National Nature Reserve.