Impact of Short-Term Hydrological Components on Landscape Pattern of Waterbird Habitat in Floodplain Wetlands

Periodic flooding in floodplain wetlands dominates the landscape pattern, creating rich and diverse habitats for waterbirds. However, most studies on floodplain wetland landscape are conducted at interannual scale, while few researches investigate the effect of short-term changes of hydrological components, such as maximum continuous flooding day, average flooding depth, maximum continuous drought day, and distance from water body. This study developed an effective approach by integrating a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model and a geographic detector model to investigate the single and interactive effects of short-term hydrological components on the landscape pattern of waterbird habitat in floodplain wetlands. The developed approach was demonstrated in the Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province of China, an important conservation floodplain wetland in the Ramsar Convention. We found the short-term hydrological components could impose a significant impact on the landscape pattern of waterbird habitat. Particularly, the interactive effects of multiple hydrological components were stronger than that of a single component, showing nonlinear enhancement. The developed approach could provide a viable way to study the ecological impacts of short-term hydrological components on the landscape pattern of waterbird habitat in floodplain wetlands, thus offer scientific references for waterbird habitat management in floodplain wetlands.