Science - 16.08.2019

SCIENCE sciencemag.org 16 AUGUST 2019 • VOL 365 ISSUE 6454 651

PHOTO: FLPA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

(^10) Guyra Paraguay–CONACYT, 20 Asunción, Paraguay.
(^11) School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The
University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072,
Australia.^12 Wildlife Conservation Society, Global
Conservation Program, Bronx, NY 10460-1068, USA.
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
REFERENCES AND NOTES

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    10.1126/science.aay2768

Save China’s yellow-

breasted bunting

The previously widespread yellow-breasted

bunting, a migratory bird that was recently

classified as Critically Endangered on the

International Union for Conservation of

Nature’s Red List ( 1 , 2 ), declined in number

by about 90% globally between 1980 and

2013 ( 3 ). The species has disappeared in

most areas of Eastern Europe, Japan, and

REFERENCES AND NOTES

1. BirdLife International, Emberiza aureola (Yellow-breasted
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   (Emberiza aureola): Urgent request for information”
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   aureola-urgent-request-for-information.


4. “Yellow-breasted bunting,” WhatBird (2019); https://
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5. M. Fowlie, “Yellow-breasted Bunting declined by 90%,”
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6. S. Chan, “Is the yellow-breasted bunting the
   next passenger pigeon?,” BirdLife International
   (2017); http://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/
   yellow-breasted-bunting-next-passenger-pigeon.


7. “Heart-broken! In just 13 years, they almost were eaten to
   extinction by Chinese diners” (2017); http://n.cztv.com/
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   Chinese].


8. S. Chan “A bird to watch: Yellow-breasted bunting”
   BirdingASIA 1 , 16 (2004).


9. W. Fe i et al., Fo r kt a i l 31 , 47 (2015).


10. “Wildlife under special state protection list” (2009); http://www.
    forestry.gov.cn/main/1078/content-115089.html [in
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11. “Lists of terrestrial wildlife under state protection, which
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    10.1126/science.aay6909

TECHNICAL COMMENT ABSTRACTS

Comment on “Impacts of historical warming

on marine fisheries production”

Cody Szuwalski

Free et al. (Reports, 1 March 2019, p. 979)

linked sea surface temperature (SST) to sur-

plus production and estimated a 4% decline

in maximum sustainable yield (MSY) since

1930. Changes in MSY are expected when
      fitting production models to age-structured
      data, so attributing observed changes to SST
      is problematic. Analyses of recruitment (a
      metric of productivity in the same database)
      showed increases in global productivity.
      Full text: dx.doi.org/10.1126/science. aax5721

Response to Comment on “Impacts of histor-

ical warming on marine fisheries production”

Christopher M. Free, James T. Thorson,

Malin L. Pinsky, Kiva L. Oken, John

Wiedenmann, Olaf P. Jensen

Szuwalski argues that varying age structure

can affect surplus production and that recruit-

ment is a better metric of productivity. We

explain how our null model controlled for age

structure and other processes as explanations

for the temperature-production relationship.

Surplus production includes growth, recruit-

ment, and other processes and provides a

more complete description of food production

impacts than does recruitment alone.

Full text: dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aax7170

The yellow-breasted bunting population has rapidly declined in recent years.

Russia, its range shrinking by 5000 km

(3–5). The rapid and continued population

decline is primarily driven by excessive

hunting ( 3 , 6 ).

In the 1990s, rumors began in southern

China that the yellow-breasted bunting

could be used as a medical supplement ( 7 ).

To meet this demand, hunting of the bird

as it migrated through the country became

increasingly common, despite a 1997

law making it illegal ( 5 ). In 2001, it was

estimated that 1 million yellow-breasted

buntings were consumed in China’s

Guangdong province ( 8 ). Only a few tens of

thousands of buntings remain globally ( 1 ,

3 ), and the recent steep population decline

indicates that they could soon dwindle to

critically low numbers.

In China, commercial hunting of the

yellow-breasted bunting is still rampant

( 9 ). To preserve this species, the Chinese

government must step up protection

efforts, including strengthening protection

regulation, cracking down on illegal hunt-

ing, and inhibiting illegal trade. To make

these efforts more effective, the govern-

ment should expedite the update of the

special state protection list ( 10 , 11 ), where

the yellow-breasted bunting is still catego-

rized as only a class III protected species

( 11 ), as opposed to the first-class protection

level that its vulnerability warrants. China

should also better publicize the importance

of wildlife protection and help the public

understand that consuming this bird could

lead to its extinction.

Yali Wang^1 , Wenjing Xue^2 , Hong jie Wang^1 *

(^1) Xiong’an Institute of Eco-Environment, Hebei
University, Baoding 071002, China.^2 College of
Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan
University, Changsha 410082, China.
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]