干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The habitats occupied by some bird species are unpredictable in terms of resource availability and they must move at irregular intervals to survive or prosper. Analyses of waterbird abundance in the arid interior of Australia show that changes in local abundance occur in response to broad scale processes that alter habitat availability on short timeframes. Local changes in waterbird abundance are a function of population processes operating at multiple spatial scales. These processes will affect waterbird numbers on different time scales and will be operating concurrently. Desert waterbirds and their responses to changes in the distribution of temporary wetlands provide a model system for analysing avian responses in dynamic landscapes. Once mobility is defined, population level processes can be understood from analyses of resource distribution and landscape structure at broad scales.