The number of porpoises inhabiting the Nanjing section of the Yangtze River is increasing, and the biodiversity of their home is becoming richer day by day. Recently, the Municipal Bureau of Greening and Landscape Architecture held a press conference to inform the 2023-2024 Nanjing Yangtze River Porpoise Provincial Nature Reserve Biodiversity Survey. The survey mainly investigated the population size and distribution characteristics of the Yangtze finless porpoise; the species composition, current status and spatial and temporal changes of aquatic organisms, wetland plants and birds; and the quality of the water environment, etc., from the fall of 2023 to the summer of 2024.
New change: the number of porpoises in the protected area increased from 62 to 65
During the 2023-2024 survey cycle, a total of 336 Yangtze finless porpoises were observed in the reserve, with an assessed population size of about 65, an increase of 4.841 TP3T compared with the 62 observed in the results of the 2022 background resource survey.The Yangtze finless porpoises in the reserve were generally distributed continuously, with the waters of Xinjizhou-Zimuzizhou and the waters of Submerged Chau as the hotspot areas.
New discovery: rich biological resources, rare bird black stork first appearance
In this dynamic survey, 105 species of phytoplankton, 59 species of zooplankton, 56 species of benthos and 47 species of fish were collected and identified; in addition to the Yangtze finless porpoise, which is a national-level key wildlife species, there are also the coelacanth, a second-level key aquatic wildlife species, the long-bodied Siniperca chuatsi, a Red Book species of China's endangered animals, as well as the longnose dolphins, eels, breams and copperheads, which are Jiangsu Province's key aquatic wildlife species.
There are also many kinds of birds distributed in and around the reserve, and the survey recorded a total of 123 species of birds. Among them, there are 4 species of national-level key wildlife: in addition to the yellow-breasted bunting (wú), the oriental white stork (guàn), and the black-faced spoonbill, the black stork was newly found in this survey; and there are 20 species of second-level key wildlife: the water pheasant, white-breasted emerald, the Aurora jay, the skylark, the black kite, the peregrine falcon, the red-footed falcon, the kestrel, the common buzzard (kuáng), the red-bellied eagle, the white-tailed harrier, the sparrowhawk, the geese, and the trumpeter swan, Lesser White-fronted Goose, Mandarin Duck, White-fronted Goose, Flower-faced Duck, Lesser Crow Cuckoo, and White Spoonbill.
New results: ecological and environmental quality of protected areas is stable and improving
The results of this year's dynamic survey show that the ecological environment quality of the reserve is stable and improving, the Yangtze finless porpoise population is stable and showing a trend of numerical growth, and the overall biodiversity remains stable. Nanjing is the only big city in the entire Yangtze River basin where wild porpoises can be seen up close in the central river section of the city, and the beautiful vision of harmonious coexistence between the city and nature is gradually becoming a reality.
