Avian Community Structure And The Relationship With Habitat In Two Airports In Jiangsu Province

Bird strike is a serious threat to aviation safety.The related studies show that the airport and its surrounding is the key area of bird strike prevention.It is necessary to understand bird communities in and around the airport area to avoid bird strikes.We investigated avian community structure at ChangZhou International Airport and NanTong Xingdong International Airport including their surrounding areas by using line transect method from April 2014 to March 2015.We analyzed the structure of bird community in the airport area,and their relationship with environmental factors.We also determined the risk species that may threat aviation safety in different seasons.For the heron birds that may have large threat to the civil aircrafts,we used three statistical methods to identify the key habitat factors influencing the habitat selection of Ardeidae.It is of great significance to guide the study of bird strike prevention in airports,providing targeted precautionary measures for bird strike prevention in the two airports at the same time.The results as follows:1.The bird diversity of flight area and surroundingWe recorded 62 species at Benniu Airport,belonging to 25 families and 10 orders,66 species at Xingdong Airport,belonging to 23 families and 11 orders.From the perspective of the bird residence type,resident species were the main part of bird community at the two airports all the year round.From the perspective of bird ecological group,songbirds were the main part of bird community.The conditions of bird community at the two airports were both relatively stable.The analysis on the bird community structure of' two airports showed that the monthly dynamic variation in bird population,species number and bird density in Benniu Airport area were different from that in Xingdong Airport,indicating that the geographical position had impact on community composition of birds.We also found the highest bird diversity index of the two airports was in April,the highest homogeneity index was in May and the lowest in November,the lowest dominance index was in April,which mainly related to bird migration.The results of one-way ANOVA showed that:Except for the uniformity index,there was significant difference in the structural parameters of the bird community in the Benniu Airport area,but no significant difference in Xingdong Airport.These results indicated that the seasonal variation had a greater impact on the bird community structure of Benniu Airport than that of Xingdong.2.The relationship between bird community and environmental factorsThe analysis of the relationship between bird community structure and environmental factors suggested that the ratio of arbor area,residential area and water area were the main environmental factors affecting the bird community structure.However,the correlation between the ratio of the water area and density of birds at two airports was different,which needs further research.3.Bird strike risk assessmentThe risk assessment of birds in the airfields of the two airports showed that the birds with greater threat in spring were mainly waders and local resident birds;Ardeidae and some species of shorebirds and local resident birds in summer;Ardeidae,raptor and local resident birds in autLumn;local resident birds in winter.4.The relationship between habitat selection and habitat factors of ArdeidaeFor the heron birds that may have large threat to the civil aircrafts,three statistical methods were used to comprehensively analyze the relationship between habitat selection and habitat factors of Ardeidae.The result of habitat preference analysis showed that Ardeidae had a strong preference for arbor height,tree diameter,herbage height,distance from water,distance from residential area,distance from road,human disturbance level and food richness.The principal component analysis showed that the main factors influencing the selection of habitats were the hidden factors,interference factors and food resources.Logistic regression analysis showed that:distance from residential area,distance from road,herbage coverage,food richness and human disturbance level were the main habitat factors affecting the selection of habitat.Based on the analyses of three statistical methods,the main habitat factors influencing the habitat of heron birds can be summarized into four aspects:safety factors,water factors,interference factors and food factors.Finally,the combination of all results of the study,resulted in some suggestions for airport habitat management and bird strike prevention,which would reduce the ·attractiveness of birds and avoid bird strike.