Can Artificial Ecological Islands Alter the Biodiversity of Macroinvertebrate and Waterfowl? A Case Study in Fujin National Wetland Park, Heilongjiang Province, China

1. Many policies and studies globally have highlighted the pivotal role of wetland ecosystems regarding wetland biota and their ecological status. With the strengthening of wetland ecosystem management legislation and policy, wetland restoration should also consider increasing habitat diversity to improve biota. We explore whether the construction of artificial ecological islands can increase the diversity of wetland birds and macroinvertebrates before assessing the effects of actively constructing islands via human intervention on wetland protection. 2. We discuss changes in waterfowl and macroinvertebrate diversity (i) with and without islands, (ii) at different water level gradients surrounding the islands, (ⅲ) on different island substrates, and (ⅳ) at different time scales. We used ANOVA, ANOSIM and cluster analysis to test the differences. 3. The waterfowl and macroinvertebrate communities had spatially heterogeneous distributions and vary over time due to both natural and anthropogenic stresses. The establishment of islands significantly changed the community composition and biodiversity of the macroinvertebrate and the waterfowl. The waterfowl and macroinvertebrate communities had different compositions at different water levels. Macroinvertebrates are the main food components of waterfowl and are closely related to them, and overall, abundance and diversity of macroinvertebrates directly and/or indirectly affect the biodiversity of waterfowl. Potentially, the construction of islands could provide some co-benefits for the conservation of wetland birds and macroinvertebrates. Synthesis and applications. Establishing artificial ecological islands in broad open water areas and increasing the water level gradient and substrate diversity. It can increase the micro-habitat diversity by artificially increasing the heterogeneity of the water depth conditions of a habitat. These changes can accommodate aquatic organisms with different ecological niches to increase the biodiversity, affecting the ecological restoration of inland freshwater marshes and wetlands. As such, wetland parks can play a positive role in protecting important bird migration pathways in northeast Asia.