Iromi Kusum Wijethunge‡§, Jingpeng Cao‡, Fanjuan Meng‡, Zheping Xu|, Qingshan Zhao‡, Lei Cao‡§Corresponding author: Qingshan Zhao ( qszhao@rcees.ac.cn ) Corresponding author: Lei Cao ( eicao@rcees.ac.cn ) © Iromi Kusum Wijethunge, Jingpeng Cao, Fanjuan Meng, Zheping Xu, Qingshan Zhao, Lei Cao. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Wijethunge IK, Cao J, Meng F, Xu Z, Zhao Q, Cao L (2025) Occurrence dataset from the waterbird survey of the middle and lower Huai He floodplain, China. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e158431 |  |
The Huai He floodplain in Anhui and Jiangsu Province, an important component of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), sustains critical wetland habitats for migratory waterbirds, including critically endangered species in the IUCN Red List, such as Aythya baeri (Radde, 1863) and Pelecanus crispus Bruch, 1832. Despite its biogeographic significance as a transitional zone between the Yangtze and Yellow River floodplains, this region remains one of China's most understudied and ecologically degraded freshwater systems. Historical pollution events and contemporary anthropogenic pressures – agricultural intensification, hydrological fragmentation, and invasive species have severely compromised wetland integrity. During mid-December 2005 and November to December 2006, standardised surveys employed fixed-radius point counts (158 sites) with the component counting method to enhance accuracy.
We present the first comprehensive waterbird dataset for the Anhui and Jiangsu part of the Huai He floodplain, comprising 44 species (32,517 individuals) recorded across 30 wetlands during 2005–2006 surveys. All occurrence data adhere to Darwin Core standards and are accessible via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, providing spatial-temporal baselines for abundance and distributional data for waterbirds in this region.