Post by account_disabled on Mar 10, 2024 3:41:06 GMT -6
Just meters from the Mekong, in the shade of a discarded plastic cup , a lone chick sits camouflaged in the sand. It is a small, newly hatched Pratincole in the province of Bueng Kan, northeast of Thailand.
“I recorded nests on the beach , a smaller number compared to previous years,” says Ratchaneekorn Buaroey, a member of the Bueng Kan Rak Nok conservation group, who recorded the chick in February. "I have serious concerns about the decline of Little Pratincoles and Ringed Plovers because their nesting site is affected by the Mekong River dams."
Lesser Pratincoles ( Glareola lactea ) mate for life and, like other vulnerable birds in the Mekong, lay their eggs in sands in the dry season from October to May. But in recent years, hydroelectric dams have co Phone Number List ntributed to unseasonable water levels.
Ratchaneekorn and her husband, Noppadol Buaroey, have been monitoring Bueng Kan's birdlife for years, noting the eggs of beach-nesting birds on the banks of the Mekong. This year, Ratchaneekorn says, the waters have been so low that this area of the bank has not flooded. By contrast, nests containing bird eggs were flooded in , more than half of the active eggs Bueng Kan Rak Nok recorded here.
Bird nests threatened by the Mekong
unnatural mekong
“These birds require several months of little water to incubate their eggs and raise their chicks. With unseasonal water levels, nests flood unpredictably,” says Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand. “The river should be dry during the right season and flooded during the right season. Otherwise, species that have depended on those seasonal rhythms for centuries will gradually become extinct."
There are operational major Mekong dams upstream of Bueng Kan, in China and one in Laos, and more major dams are in various stages of planning and development in Laos.
“Sudden releases of water from Chinese dams during the dry season have made the Mekong almost unrecognizable from the river it once was,” says Phil Round, regional representative of the Wetland Trust and research associate at the Museum of State University. Michigan. "Many eggs and small, not yet flightless, hatchlings are washed and destroyed."
The dry season has been unpredictable, driven largely by maintenance and testing of China's Jinghong Dam site near the borders of Thailand and Laos.
According to data from the Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, levels below Jinghong have risen and fallen since December, as a result of hydrospeech operations. This is when, because demand peaks during the day, the turbines are turned off at night and water release is restricted until demand increases the next day. Brian Eyler of the Stimson Center says the Jinghong hydropower plant is responding to local energy demand in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna prefecture.
The main species affected along the Thai stretches of the Mekong are the little pratincoles, of which there may be fewer than , pairs, and the river lapwings, with perhaps fewer than pairs, says Round, adding that the ringed plover and The red-wattled lapwing are equally affected.
Bird nests threatened by the Mekong
Downstream in the dark
"In fact, we need some proper structured studies on the impact of dams on birds to get a more precise idea of what is happening," says Round. "I'm not aware that anyone is looking properly to assess the damage."
“I recorded nests on the beach , a smaller number compared to previous years,” says Ratchaneekorn Buaroey, a member of the Bueng Kan Rak Nok conservation group, who recorded the chick in February. "I have serious concerns about the decline of Little Pratincoles and Ringed Plovers because their nesting site is affected by the Mekong River dams."
Lesser Pratincoles ( Glareola lactea ) mate for life and, like other vulnerable birds in the Mekong, lay their eggs in sands in the dry season from October to May. But in recent years, hydroelectric dams have co Phone Number List ntributed to unseasonable water levels.
Ratchaneekorn and her husband, Noppadol Buaroey, have been monitoring Bueng Kan's birdlife for years, noting the eggs of beach-nesting birds on the banks of the Mekong. This year, Ratchaneekorn says, the waters have been so low that this area of the bank has not flooded. By contrast, nests containing bird eggs were flooded in , more than half of the active eggs Bueng Kan Rak Nok recorded here.
Bird nests threatened by the Mekong
unnatural mekong
“These birds require several months of little water to incubate their eggs and raise their chicks. With unseasonal water levels, nests flood unpredictably,” says Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand. “The river should be dry during the right season and flooded during the right season. Otherwise, species that have depended on those seasonal rhythms for centuries will gradually become extinct."
There are operational major Mekong dams upstream of Bueng Kan, in China and one in Laos, and more major dams are in various stages of planning and development in Laos.
“Sudden releases of water from Chinese dams during the dry season have made the Mekong almost unrecognizable from the river it once was,” says Phil Round, regional representative of the Wetland Trust and research associate at the Museum of State University. Michigan. "Many eggs and small, not yet flightless, hatchlings are washed and destroyed."
The dry season has been unpredictable, driven largely by maintenance and testing of China's Jinghong Dam site near the borders of Thailand and Laos.
According to data from the Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, levels below Jinghong have risen and fallen since December, as a result of hydrospeech operations. This is when, because demand peaks during the day, the turbines are turned off at night and water release is restricted until demand increases the next day. Brian Eyler of the Stimson Center says the Jinghong hydropower plant is responding to local energy demand in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna prefecture.
The main species affected along the Thai stretches of the Mekong are the little pratincoles, of which there may be fewer than , pairs, and the river lapwings, with perhaps fewer than pairs, says Round, adding that the ringed plover and The red-wattled lapwing are equally affected.
Bird nests threatened by the Mekong
Downstream in the dark
"In fact, we need some proper structured studies on the impact of dams on birds to get a more precise idea of what is happening," says Round. "I'm not aware that anyone is looking properly to assess the damage."