Protect the wetlands in Yellow River Delta, and look after the "Bird International Airport" with digital technology

Tech 2023-06-02 17:14:34 Source: Network

The Jiuqu Yellow River runs for thousands of miles from Qinghai, crossing nine provinces and regions, and entering the sea from Dongying, Shandong. During this long journey, the sediment is scoured and deposited here, creating a magical and magnificent Yellow River Delta and breeding a large wetland

The Jiuqu Yellow River runs for thousands of miles from Qinghai, crossing nine provinces and regions, and entering the sea from Dongying, Shandong. During this long journey, the sediment is scoured and deposited here, creating a magical and magnificent Yellow River Delta and breeding a large wetland. This is the widest, most complete, and youngest wetland ecosystem in the warm temperate zone of China.

The wetland in the Yellow River Estuary is primitive, well preserved, and has a vast area. It is a natural laboratory for studying the development and succession of wetland ecosystems, a natural gene pool for protecting biodiversity, and has important significance in various fields such as harmonious development between humans and nature, and maintaining ecological balance.

In recent years, the Yellow River estuary area has been severely invaded by an alien species - Spartina alterniflora, posing a threat to ecological security. In order to protect the ecological environment of Yellow River Delta, Spartina alterniflora was comprehensively controlled in the nature reserve.

From the picture contrast, we can see that a large "green area" has changed back to the mud colored mudflat. Ma Pingchuan, a staff member of Shandong Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve, told reporters that, "The first impression may be that the green of this large area is not very good. It is a symbol of good environment. How should we control it? In fact, Spartina alterniflora is an invasive alien species. Rapid propagation competes with local plants in the coastal mudflat for growth space, which severely compresses the growth space of local species such as Tamarix, Phragmites communis and Suaeda heteroptera, and the local plants are declining or even disappearing, threatening local biodiversity. On the other hand Spartina alterniflora damages the habitat of coastal organisms, causing suffocation and death of various organisms such as coastal shellfish, crabs, algae, and fish. Not only that, the tidal creek is blocked by Spartina alterniflora, but there are also a large number of fish and benthic animals living in the tidal creek, which is also a place for birds to forage and rest. It also means a significant loss of bird habitats

Since 2016, Dongying City has made technological breakthroughs, combined with scientific research institutions such as the Yantai Coastal Zone Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used geographic information system, remote sensing technology, combined with field survey, through field control experiments and indoor simulation analysis, to find out the distribution pattern and invasion mechanism of Spartina alterniflora in the Yellow River Delta, and formed the control methods of flooding+cutting, cutting+tillage, and has successively implemented control projects.

For large areas of Spartina alterniflora, before bearing mature seeds, we mow and clear the vegetation on the ground, cut off photosynthesis, and after cutting off the surface of Spartina alterniflora, further plowing is carried out to prevent its resurgence. Often, multiple plowing is required, "said Ma Pingchuan.

"Birds know best where the environment is good". Yellow River Delta, because of its unique natural conditions, provides an ideal habitat for birds. It is an important "transit station", wintering ground and breeding place across the two migratory routes of "East Asia - Australia" and "the Western Pacific Rim", and is known as the "Bird International Airport". More than 20 kinds of rare birds, such as Oriental white stork, black beaked gull, red crowned crane, curly feather pelican, have been attracted to breed on this vibrant mudflat.

However, with the vast wetland protected areas and the swift movement of birds, monitoring is not an easy task. In previous years, protection workers have relied on deep observation and manual recording within the protected areas. For example, over 2000 Oriental white storks that have naturally multiplied in the Yellow River Estuary wetland over the years are accumulated and counted by staff one by one.

Starting from 2022, the Huawei TECH4ALL digital inclusion team has launched a pilot project for biodiversity intelligent monitoring in protected areas. Through the "Perception+5G+Edge AI+Cloud" solution, it has assisted in species intelligent identification, data statistics, and intelligent analysis in protected areas, effectively improving the efficiency of protection management and intelligent decision-making, and providing innovative ideas and methods for scientific research, monitoring, and protection.

On the big screen of Yellow River Delta Ecological Monitoring Center, the "every move" of birds is clearly visible, and the picture of large birds with young birds looking for food on the mudflat makes people laugh. The staff also introduced that during the monitoring process, we saw a bird whose nest had just been built falling to the ground due to a strong wind, so we can see that some of the birds in the same period have already started to feed their young while they are still undergoing arduous hatching.

Without new monitoring methods, such scenes and details of bird activities are difficult to detect and recorded in real-time, "the staff explained.

Shan Kai, a senior engineer at the nature reserve, said, This complete monitoring system solves the problem of manual 24-hour monitoring, and can quickly identify various birds. The recognition accuracy gradually improves with the increase of data volume. Secondly, its intelligent analysis can discover patterns that we did not previously grasp, and through the cloud, valuable data can be archived and stored. After the introduction of this system, it has a great role for our scientific research, monitoring, and management

For example, the pattern of bird activity in the first quarter of this year was very surprising to me. From the data, we can see that bird activity is relatively low at 6am, and there are basically no signs of activity after 6pm. The active period is from 9am to 3pm, while in the second quarter, it is active from 6am to 6pm. This data makes us very interesting, but when we analyze it again, we can send it out Currently, the temperature is relatively low in the first quarter or winter, and the active time of birds is usually when the temperature is relatively high. In the second quarter, the overall temperature has rebounded, so the active time of birds has also increased Dan Kai gave an example.

In the future, in terms of biodiversity conservation, the staff of the protected area still have larger ideas. Currently, the Yellow River Estuary Nature Reserve is only one point where AI technology can be used to monitor bird activity patterns. If digital technology can be used on bird migration routes in the future, points can be connected to form lines, and a population's migration patterns can be better understood.

Birds migrate and fly across borders, uniting different countries and regions, forming a harmonious and symbiotic community of life between humans and nature. Currently, Dongying City is accelerating the creation of the Huanghekou National Park, with a planned area of 3518 square kilometers. With the joint efforts of all parties, this wetland will become more vibrant in the future.

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