Wenyuan Zhang | 张文远

I studied Ecology as an undergraduate at the University of Science and Technology Beijing. In 2018, I graduated from Department of Earth System Science in Tsinghua University with a MSc degree in Ecology, specialising in species distribution of migratory birds. My MSc research project, under the supervision of Dr Yali Si, investigated how environmental drivers influence the distribution of waterfowl in their stopover sites across different scales. After my master study, I came to Oxford on a CSC scholarship. I also hold the Jesus College Graduate Scholarship since 2020.

I am currently studying the biodiversity conservation of birds, supervised by Professor Ben Sheldon, Professor Richard Grenyer and Professor Kevin Gaston. Specifically, I am interested in how local biodiversity change could signal biodiveristy patterns at larger scales, and the extent to which human society and wildlife could benefits from it. I am also enjoying in combing the fieldwork and office working when conducting my projects.

Selected publications

Curr. Biol.

Habitat change and biased sampling influence estimation of diversity trends [In press]

Wenyuan Zhang, Ben C. Sheldon, Richard Grenyer, and Kevin J. Gaston

Current Biology, 2021

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Recent studies have drawn contrasting conclusions about the extent to which local-scale measures of biodiversity are declining, and whether such patterns conflict with the global-scale declines that have attracted much attention. A key source of high quality data for such analyses comes from longitudinal biodiversity studies which sample a given taxon repeatedly over time at a specific location. There has been relatively little consideration of how habitat change might lead to biases in the sampling and continuity of biodiversity time-series data, and the consequent potential for bias in the biodiversity trends that result. Here, based on analysis of standardised routes from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (3014 routes sampled over 18 years), we demonstrate that major local habitat change is associated with an increase in the rate of survey cessations. We further show that routes that were continued despite major habitat changes show reduced diversity. By simulating potential rates of loss, we show that the underlying real trends in taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity can even reverse in sign if more than a quarter of diversity is lost from routes that ceased, and are thus no longer included in surveys. Our analyses imply that biodiversity loss can be underestimated by biases introduced if continued sampling in longitudinal studies is influenced by local change. We argue that researchers and conservation practitioners should be aware of the potential for bias in such data and seek to use more robust methods to evaluate biodiversity trends and make conservation decisions.
Landsc. Ecol.

Multiscale effects of habitat and surrounding matrices on waterbird diversity in the Yangtze River Floodplain

Boyu Gao, Peng Gong, Wenyuan Zhang, Jun Yang, and Yali Si

Landscape Ecology, 2021

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With the expansion in urbanization, understanding how biodiversity responds to the altered landscape becomes a major concern. Most studies focus on habitat effects on biodiversity, yet much less attention has been paid to surrounding landscape matrices and their joint effects.We investigated how habitat and landscape matrices affect waterbird diversity across scales in the Yangtze River Floodplain, a typical area with high biodiversity and severe human-wildlife conflict. The compositional and structural features of the landscape were calculated at fine and coarse scales. The ordinary least squares regression model was adopted, following a test showing no significant spatial autocorrelation in the spatial lag and spatial error models, to estimate the relationship between landscape metrics and waterbird diversity. Well-connected grassland and shrub surrounded by isolated and regular-shaped developed area maintained higher waterbird diversity at fine scales. Regular-shaped developed area and cropland, irregular-shaped forest, and aggregated distribution of wetland and shrub positively affected waterbird diversity at coarse scales. Habitat and landscape matrices jointly affected waterbird diversity. Regular-shaped developed area facilitated higher waterbird diversity and showed the most pronounced effect at coarse scales. The conservation efforts should not only focus on habitat quality and capacity, but also habitat connectivity and complexity when formulating development plans. We suggest planners minimize the expansion of the developed area into critical habitats and leave buffers to maintain habitat connectivity and shape complexity to reduce the disturbance to birds. Our findings provide important insights and practical measures to protect biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes.
Ecol. Indic.

Multi-scale habitat selection by two declining East Asian waterfowl species at their core spring stopover area

Wenyuan Zhang, Xinhai Li, Le Yu, and Yali Si

Ecological Indicators, 2018

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Animals respond to their environment at multiple spatial scales that each require different conservation measures. Waterbirds are key bio-indicators for globally threatened wetland ecosystems but their multi-scale habitat selection mechanisms have rarely been studied. Using satellite tracking data and Maximum entropy modeling, we studied habitat selection of two declining waterfowl species, the Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser Albifrons) and the Tundra Bean Goose (A. serrirostris), at three spatial scales: landscape (30, 40, 50 km), foraging (10, 15, 20 km) and roosting (1, 3, 5 km). We hypothesized that the landscape-scale habitat selection was mainly based on relatively coarse landscape metrics, while more detailed landscape features were taken into account for the foraging- and roosting- scale habitat selection. We found that both waterfowl species preferred areas with a larger percentage of wetland and waterbodies at the landscape scale, aggregated waterbodies surrounded by scattered croplands at the foraging scale, and well-connected wetlands and well-connected middle-sized waterbodies at the roosting scale. The main difference in habitat selection for the two species occurred at the landscape and foraging scale; factors at the roosting scale were similar. We suggest that conservation activities should focus on enhancing the aggregation and connectivity of waterbodies and wetlands, and developing less aggregated cropland in the surroundings. Our approach could guide waterbird conservation practices and wetland management by providing effective measures to improve habitat quality in the face of human-induced environmental change.