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Wetland home to rare species
By Bivash Mukherjee 2004-4-26

IT may be hard to believe, but some 10 kilometers from Pudong International Airport lies a natural wetland reserve “Jiuduansha” 鈥?that is home to some rare marine life and migratory birds.

The existence of such a rare marshland so close to a developing township was the high point of a tour organized by the Pudong New Area Government, which chose to highlight its achievements on the ecological front as it completes 14 years in office.

Ecologists point out that a marshland so close to where the Yangtze River and East China Sea meets is a rarity.

“The flow of the river and the tides from the sea interact strongly. The intermingling of these two distinct water systems was probably what led to the formation of Jiuduansha,” says Zhang Zheng, vice director-general of Pudong’s Environment Management Bureau.

“The complex conditions have obviously had an impact on the equally complex freshwater and marine ecosystems,” Zhang says.

The wetland covers an area of a little more than 420 square kilometers. Depending on the time of the season, tidal waves submerge anywhere between 200 square kilometers or even more, making the island almost uninhabitable.

On rare occasions, high tidal waves leave only 50 square kilometers of marshy land visible to the eye.

But that, apparently, is of little consequence to the local fishermen, who are aware of the rare marine life that exits in the shallow waters, including the protected Chinese sturgeon.

Despite a ban on fishing in the area, it is quite a task on the administration to rein-in the erring fisher folks.

Zhang does admit fishing is a problem and says that while it isn’t a major issue now, it could be in five years time.

Prompted by this need to act and protect the biological diversity, the city government set up the Shanghai Jiuduansha Agency for Wetland Nature Reserve Management four years ago. Its primary mission was conservation, scientific research and surveying the biological resources in the area. It has been helped in the job by researchers from the Institute of Biodiversity Science at Fudan University.

The wetlands are known to have a high diversity of fish 鈥?both freshwater and coastal 鈥?and have been a breeding ground for some rare aquatic mammals.

“Our surveys have found 128 species of fish in Jiuduansha and its precincts out of which five fall under the national priority protected fish,” says Wu Jihua with the Biodiversity Institute.

Given the nature of the marshlands, water and shore birds abound a good 113 varieties of them 鈥?out of which six species are listed as endangered animals.

Jiuduansha has also been reported to be an important stopover for food for long-distance migratory birds, particularly from Australia. “With few signs of any human activity, it has proved to be a good habitat for the migrant birds,” claims Wu.

The reserve is also known to hold rare plant communities and vegetation that researchers say is of great economic and scientific value.

The wide composition of macrofauna is also indicative of the diversity of the Yangtze River estuary, Wu points out.

Experts believe that Jiuduansha is likely to grow because of the higher rate of sedimentation brought along by the various water conservancy projects along the Yangtze River. Therefore, protecting the wetlands is of critical importance to ensure the sustainability of the habitats, according to Zhang.

However, questions remain over large-scale reclamation projects, particularly with Shanghai’s constant search for agricultural farmland, which could seriously affect Jiuduansha’s ecosystems. Ecologists warn that loss of wetlands could lead to serious decline in ecosystem services.

One way to alleviate such impacts would be to protect grasslands that help in trapping silt and water-flow regulation, and which are also key spots for migratory birds.

Zhang and his team hope to address this issue at an international marshland preservation conference in August, which will also highlight the unique features of Jiuduansha to the world.

Wetland home to rare species by — IT may be hard to believe, but some 10 kilometers from Pudong International Airport lies a natural wetland reserve “Jiuduansha” 鈥?that is home to some rare marine life and migratory birds.

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