Abstract: Wetland landscape patterns of shallow riverconnected lakes exhibit distinct seasonal dynamics under natural hydrological regime. To elucidate the impacts of landscape pattern changes on bird diversity, we investigated the distribution of bird species and abundance in Anhui Anqing Caizi Lake National Wetland Park during the high (August-October 2019) and low (November 2019-January 2020) water seasons. The characteristics of landscape elements were analyzed using the landscape pattern index method based on remote sensing image data, and the relationship between bird diversity and landscape elements was studied. The results showed that there were 11 orders, 31 families, and 61 species of birds in the park. Among all the recorded species, three species were under the national Class Ⅰ key protection, six species were under the national Class Ⅱ key protection, and 15 species were under the key protection of Anhui Province. During the highwater season, birds were mainly distributed in the rational utilization zone and were predominantly forest birds. During the lowwater season, birds were concentrated in an ecological conservation zone and were primarily Anseriformes, with a maximum number of 10974 individuals. Species richness and bird diversity index were higher in the highwater season than in the low-water season, whereas the abundance of water birds was higher in the low-water season than in the highwater season. Bird diversity index was significantly higher in rational utilization zone than that in other functional zones, with a decreased diversity index monthly. The results of canonical correspondence analysis showed that landscape diversity index, uniformity index, fragmentation, mudflat area, and grassland area were the main factors influencing bird diversity in the wetland park.

Key words: bird diversity, landscape pattern, canonical correspondence analysis, Caizi Lake, wetland park.