Notes and comments Ground-dwelling birds near the Qinghai-Tibet highway and railway Zhongqiu Li a, * , Chen Ge a , Jing Li a , Yankuo Li b , Aichun Xu c , Kexin Zhou d , Dayuan Xue d a The State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China b College of Life Science, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China c College of Life Science, Chinese Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China d Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nanjing 210042, China. article info Keywords: Bird diversity Road ecology Wildlife habitat abstract The Qinghai-Tibet highway and railway cross desolate habitat at elevations of over 4600 m. We assess specie richness and abundance of ground-dwelling birds using strip transects located at a variety of altitudes perpendicular to this transportation corridor. Bird richness, bird abundance, and abundance of rufous-necked snowfinch, were higher adjacent to the roadway than further way. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Many studies assessing road effects on bird diversity have found a negative impact on bird richness and abundance that can be attribute to such things as increased noise, road mortality, and air pollution. 1 Other research, however, has found a positive or insignificant association between bird presence and roadways. The Qinghai-Tibet highway and railway constitute the main transportation corridor through the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The highway was originally constructed in the early 1950s with the Golmud to Lhasa section completed in 2006. Two, mostly parallel roadways, begin in Xining, Qinghai Province, cross the Kunlun Mountains, Hoh Xil and Tanggula Mountains, and end in Lhasa, Tibet. Work evaluating the effects of these roadways on mammals, and especially the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii), have found that ungulates were habituating to the presence of the railway (e.g. Yang and Xia, 2008). Little is known, however, regarding the road effects on bird diversity in the region. 2. Methods We surveyed birds along the parallel Qinghai-Tibet highway and railway in Hoh-Xil National Nature Reserve, Qinghai Province, China during July 2009. The elevations involved ranged from 4200 m to 6860 m above sea level. Dry, cold, and long winters, strong winds, and high levels of solar radiation characterize the local climate. The mean annual temperature is À8 °C with an extreme recorded low temperature of À46 °C. The main vegetation type is alpine grassland and meadow, entirely devoid of trees and shrubs. Because this region is sparsely populated, it is locally referred to as ‘no man’s land’. We counted ground-dwelling birds along strip transects during July 2009. Before the census, we pre-observed the bird population and decided to only record birds within 25 m of each side of the transect center. Because of the sparse vegetation, this represents any almost a complete census of birds present. At each of 15 selected locations along the railway, we counted birds at five, 150 m long transects that paralleled the railway at distances of 0 m, 300 m, 600 m, 900 m, 1200 m (Fig. 1). Along 1361-9209/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.trd.2010.07.004 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: lizq0314@gmail.com (Z. Li). 1 Trombulak and Frissell (2000) for example talk of roads as being ‘ecological traps’. Transportation Research Part D xxx (2010) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Transportation Research Part D journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/trd Please cite this article in press as: Li, Z., et al. Ground-dwelling birds near the Qinghai-Tibet highway and railway. Transport. Res. Part D (2010), doi:10.1016/j.trd.2010.07.004