The importance of the Bay of Cádiz for wintering shorebird populations and effects of human transformations

Full article

Published:

Volume 40(2), December 1993. Pages 133-142.

Language:

Spanish

Original title:

Importancia de la Bahía de Cádiz para las poblaciones de limícolas invernantes e influencia de las transformaciones humanas

Keywords:

Cádiz Bay, conservation, human influence, shorebirds, wintering.

Abstract:

In this paper we compared the wintering wader populations from the Cádiz Bay Natural Park and the total population for Spain, Iberian Peninsula and the East Atlantic flyway. The Bay of Cádiz is the most important Spanish wetland, this area also having international importance as it supports more than 20000 wintering shorebirds. Numbers of five species (Himantopus himatopus, Recurvirostra avosetta, Charadrius hiaticula, Charadrius alexandrinus and Limosa limosa) reached more than 1% of their respective Atlantic flyway populations. We show the effect of human activities in the Bay (fishfarms and bivalve culture areas) in affecting shorebird distribution, proposing some recommendations for preserving the populations of these species in the study area.