Red-necked stints making vast migrations between Arctic breeding grounds and Australasian wintering areas depend critically on Yellow Sea tidal flats being rapidly reclaimed.
Stints failing to refuel adequately at Yellow Sea stopover sites face the welfare consequences of attempted migration with insufficient energy reserves: exhaustion, starvation, and death at sea or on arrival at destinations too depleted to survive. Birds forced to use degraded tidal flats with reduced invertebrate food availability spend longer refuelling and face greater predator exposure. Habitat loss at stopover sites creates population-level welfare impacts across the entire flyway.