Vaithianathan Kannan

Monitoring the ecosystem's health and quality is a long-term process as these are complex and change slowly. Although it can be costly and time-consuming, the long-term trends help us gain new knowledge and understanding about the environment. One of the aims of monitoring is to get information that can provide early warning of the changes that could negatively affect species or the ecosystem.

However, considering how impractical it is to monitor all of the ecosystem components, a few have been used as indicators for more comprehensive conditions. These representative components are known as bio-indicators.

Bio-indicators are representative of particular ecosystems. They are also simple and inexpensive to measure, clearly interpretable and predictable by validated quantitative models and internationally applicable and relevant for the environmental threat. Birds, in many cases, appear to be more sensitive to environmental contaminants than other vertebrates. In particular, the waterbirds have served as sentinel species for various environmental toxicological problems and are expected to continue as one in the foreseeable future.

The term ‘waterbirds’ encompasses many bird species that feed near or in water. These include shorebirds that forage primarily in saltwater habitats and wading birds that utilise freshwater and brackish habitats. Wading birds, particularly, have been increasingly highlighted due to their decreasing pattern worldwide. Since their presence and abundance can influence both local and regional scales, they are continuously being subjected to increasing threats.

The loss of inter-tidal habitats or reduction in their size is a common issue waterbirds face. It alters their ecology, causing a decrease in the distribution and abundance of dependent species. In addition…read more on NOPR