Abstract: The Huainan and Huaibei plains have abundant coal resources. Due to high groundwater level, long-term coal mining in the area caused deformation and subsidence of the ground, resulting in large areas of waterlogged subsidence wetland. These artificial wetlands provide important habitats for migratory waterbirds on the East Asian-Australasian flyway. However, this area is densely populated and has heavy anthropogenic activities, including photovoltaics, aquaculture, and wetland parks, which alter waterbird habitats and affect community composition of waterbirds. In this study, we investigated species composition and quantity distribution of waterbirds and the driving factors in 32 subsidence wetlands including four categories of nature, photovoltaic, aquaculture, and park in the Huainan and Huaibei plains, Anhui Province. We further analyzed the impacts of wetland utilization models on the structure of waterbird communities from the perspective of taxonomic diversity and functional diversity. The results showed that species diversity and functional diversity in photovoltaic wetlands were significantly lower than those in natural wetlands (species abundance: P<0.001; functional richness: P<0.001). The functional diversity in aquaculture wetlands was lower than that of natural wetlands. The species diversity and functional diversity of park wetlands were significantly higher than those of natural wetlands (species abundance: P<0.05; functional richness: P<0.05; functional evenness: P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the functional diversity among photovoltaic, park, and aquaculture wetlands. Generalized linear mixed model analysis showed that the area of wetlands and the area of natural vegetation within wetland waters were significantly positively correlated with the diversity index of wintering waterbird. Our results indicated that waterbird community structure in subsidence wetlands varied across the diverse utilization patterns. Reasonable anthropogenic use measures could improve the diversity of waterbirds in the subsidence wetlands, which would have positive significance for the conservation of regional waterbird resources.

Key words: wintering waterbird, species diversity, functional diversity, wetland utilization, coal mining subsidence area