Avifaunal assemblage patterns in Bharathapuzha River Basin, Kerala, India
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Bharathapuzha, the second largest west-flowing river in the Western Ghats, originates from the northern and southern parts of the Palghat gap and debouches into the Arabian Sea at Ponnani. This river is exposed to high levels of anthropogenic pressures. This study looks into avifaunal assemblage patterns and the factors influencing the structure of bird communities in different ecological zones of the Bharathapuzha River Basin. The syntropic birds and flocking birds contribute variations in the bird community assemblage in the river basin. For the water-dependent and water-associated birds, mudflats, water flow, riverside vegetation, and distance from the forest were found to be the influencing factors in the migratory season. The study also emphasized the importance of protecting these river-associated habitats for the conservation of birds.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors own the copyright to the articles published in JoTT. This is indicated explicitly in each publication. The authors grant permission to the publisher Wildlife Information Liaison Development (WILD) Society to publish the article in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The authors recognize WILD as the original publisher, and to sell hard copies of the Journal and article to any buyer. JoTT is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which allows authors to retain copyright ownership. Under this license the authors allow anyone to download, cite, use the data, modify, reprint, copy and distribute provided the authors and source of publication are credited through appropriate citations (e.g., Son et al. (2016). Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of the southeastern Truong Son Mountains, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(7): 8953–8969. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2785.8.7.8953-8969). Users of the data do not require specific permission from the authors or the publisher.
References
Aarif, K.M., S.B. Muzaffar, S. Babu & P.K. Prasadan (2014). Shorebird assemblages respond to anthropogenic stress by altering habitat use in a wetland in India. Biodiversity and Conservation 23: 727–740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0630-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0630-9
Abell, R., M.L. Thieme, C. Revenga, M. Bryer, M. Kottelat, N. Bogutskaya & P.P. Petry (2008). Freshwater ecoregions of the world: a new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation. Bioscience 58(5): 403–414. https://doi.org/10.1641/B580507 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1641/B580507
Ali, S. (1999). Birds of Kerala. Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department, Thiruvananthapuram, 520 pp.
Ali, S. & S.D. Ripley (1983). A Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay, 354 pp.
Anand, M.O., J. Krishnaswamy, A. Kumar & A. Bali (2010). Sustaining biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes in the Western Ghats: remnant forests matter. Biological Conservation 143(10): 2363–2374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.01.013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.01.013
Anderson, M.J. & D.C. Walsh (2013). PERMANOVA, ANOSIM, and the Mantel test in the face of heterogeneous dispersions: what null hypothesis are you testing? Ecological Monographs 83(4): 557–574. https://doi.org/10.1890/12-2010.1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1890/12-2010.1
Asefa, A, A.B. Davies, A.E. McKechnie, A.A. Kinahan & B.J. van Rensburg (2017). Effects of anthropogenic disturbance on bird diversity in Ethiopian montane forests. The Condor: Ornithological Applications 119(3): 416–430. https://doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-16-81.1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-16-81.1
Batáry, P., A. Báldi & S. Erdős (2007). Grassland versus non-grassland bird abundance and diversity in managed grasslands: local, landscape and regional scale effects, pp. 45–55. In: Hawksworth, D.L. & A.T. Bull (eds). Vertebrate Conservation and Biodiversity. Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation, Springer (5): 871–881. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6320-6_4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6320-6_4
Bellio, M. & R.T. Kingsford (2013). Alteration of wetland hydrology in coastal lagoons: Implications for shorebird conservation and wetland restoration at a Ramsar site in Sri Lanka. Biological Conservation (167): 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.07.013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.07.013
Benton, T.G, J.A. Vickery & J.D. Wilson (2003). Farmland biodiversity: is habitat heterogeneity the key? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 18(4): 182–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(03)00011-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(03)00011-9
Borcard, D., F. Gillet & P. Legendre (2011). Numerical Ecology with R. Springer, New York, 688 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7976-6
Būhning‐Gaese, K. (1997). Determinants of avian species richness at different spatial scales. Journal of Biogeography 24(1): 49–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.1997.tb00049 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.1997.tb00049.x
Chandran, K. & C.K. Vishnudas (2018). A comparative study of mixed-species bird flocks in a shaded coffee plantation and natural forest in Wayanad, Kerala. Indian Birds 14: 97–102.
Clarke, K.R. (1993). Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure. Australian Journal of Ecology 18: 117–143. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.1993.tb00438 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.1993.tb00438.x
Clemens, R.S., A. Herrod & M.A. Weston (2014). Lines in the mud; revisiting the boundaries of important shorebird areas. Journal for Nature Conservation 22(1): 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2013.09.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2013.09.001
Daniels, R.J.R. (1989). Conservation strategy for the birds of the Uttara Kannada District. Ph.D. thesis. Indian institute of science, Bangalore, 238 pp
Dittmann, S. (2008). Biodiversity and habitat characteristics of intertidal and estuarine mudflats of the Fleurieu Peninsula and Gulf St Vincent. Report for the Department for Environment and Heritage and Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board, 52 pp.
Donald, P.F., R.E. Green & M.F. Heath (2001). Agricultural intensification and the collapse of Europe’s farmland bird populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 268(1462): 25–29. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2000.1325 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2000.1325
Donaldson, L., A.J. Woodhead, R.J. Wilson & I.M. Maclean (2016). Subsistence use of papyrus is compatible with wetland bird conservation. Biological Conservation 201: 414–422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.07.036 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.07.036
Dissanayake, N.G. (2019). Biodiversity and ecological functioning of mudflat macrofauna in the Anthropocene. PhD thesis. Griffith University, Australia, 221 pp. https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/1396
Fitzherbert, E.B., M.J. Struebig, A. Morel, F. Danielsen, C.A. Brühl, P.F. Donald & B. Phalan (2008). How will oil palm expansion affect biodiversity? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 23(10): 538–545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.06.012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.06.012
Garcia, C.A., S.A. Bhagwat, J. Ghazoul, C.D. Nath, K.M. Nanaya, C.G. Kushalappa & P. Vaast (2010). Biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes: challenges and opportunities of coffee agroforests in the Western Ghats, India. Conservation Biology 24(2): 479–488. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01386.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01386.x
Gonz´alez-Gajardo, A., P.V. Sepúlveda & R. Schlatter (2009). Waterbird assemblages and habitat characteristics in wetlands: influence of temporal variability on species habitat relationships. Waterbirds 32: 225–234. https://doi.org/10.1675/063.032.0203 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1675/063.032.0203
Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (2014). Birds of Indian Sub-continent. Oxford University Press, 528 pp.
Jacob, K. & S. Narayanaswamy (1954). The Structural and Drainage Pattern of the Western Ghats in the Vicinity of Palghat Gap. Proceeding of National Institute of Science India 20(1): 101–118.
Jayapal, R, Q. Qureshi & R. Chellam (2009). Importance of forest structure versus floristics to composition of avian assemblages in tropical deciduous forests of Central Highlands, India. Forest Ecology and Management 257(11): 2287–2295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2009.03.010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2009.03.010
John, J., N.R. Chithra & S.G. Thampi (2019). Prediction of land use/cover change in the Bharathapuzha river basin, India using geospatial techniques. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 191: 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7482-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7482-4
Karanth K.K., V. Sankararaman, S. Dalvi, A. Srivathsa, R. Parameshwaran, S. Sharma, P. Robbins & A. Chhatre (2016). Producing Diversity: Agroforests Sustain Avian Richness and Abundance in India’s Western Ghats. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 4: 111 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2016.00111 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2016.00111
Karmierczak, K. (2000). A Field Guide to the Birds of India. Pica Press, U.K., 351 pp.
Kurucz, K., J.J. Purger & P. Batary (2021). Urbanization shapes bird communities and nest survival, but not their food quantity. Global Ecology and Conservation 26: e01475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01475 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01475
Kruskal, J.B. (1964). Multidimensional scaling by optimizing goodness of fit to a nonmetric hypothesis. Psychometrika 29(1): 1–27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289565
Legendre, P. & M.J. Anderson (1999). Distance‐based redundancy analysis: testing multispecies responses in multifactorial ecological experiments. Ecological Monographs 69(1): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9615(1999)069[0001:DBRATM]2.0.CO;2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9615(1999)069[0001:DBRATM]2.0.CO;2
Lorenzón, R.E., A.H. Beltzer, P.F. Olguin, E.J. León, L.V. Sovrano, C.E. Antoniazzi & A.L. Ronchi‐Virgolini (2019). Temporal variation of bird assemblages in dynamic fluvial wetlands: seasonality and influence of water level and habitat availability. Revista de Biología Tropical 67(6): 1131–1145. https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v67i6.36734 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v67i6.36734
Luo, K., Z. Wu, H. Bai & Z. Wang (2019). Bird diversity and waterbird habitat preferences in relation to wetland restoration at Dianchi Lake, south-west China. Avian Research 10(1): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-019-0162-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-019-0162-9
McCracken, D.I. & J.R. Tallowin (2004). Swards and structure: the interactions between farming practices and bird food resources in lowland grasslands. Ibis 146: 108–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2004.00360.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2004.00360.x
Meyer, W.B. & B.L. Turner (1992). Human population growth and global land-use/cover change. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 23(1): 39–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.23.1.39
Murray, N.J. & R.A. Fuller (2015). Protecting stopover habitat for migratory shorebirds in East Asia. Journal of Ornithology 156: 217–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-015-1225-2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-015-1225-2
Namgail, T, J.Y. Takekawa, S. Balachandran, E.C. Palm, T. Mundkur, V.M. Vélez, D. J. Prosser & S.H. Newman (2017). Himalayan thoroughfare: migratory routes of ducks over the rooftop of the world, pp. 30–44. In: Bird Migration Across the Himalayas: Wetland Functioning amidst Mountains and Glaciers. Cambridge University Press, 440 pp. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316335420.005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316335420.005
Oksanen, J.F., G. Blanchet, R.K.P. Legendre, P.R. Minchin, R.B. O’hara & G.L. Simpson (2013). Community ecology package ”Package vegan.” version 2.6-4. 1–295. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan.
Patrignani, A. & T.E. Ochsner (2015). Canopeo: A powerful new tool for measuring fractional green canopy cover. Agronomy Journal 107(6): 2312–2320. https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj15.0150 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj15.0150
Plass, E.O.V. & J.M. Wunderle (2013). Avian distribution along a gradient of urbanization in northeastern Puerto Rico. Ecological Bulletins (54): 141–156.
Pramod, P. (1995). Ecological studies of bird communities in Silent Valley and neighbouring forests. PhD hTesis, University of Calicut.
Raj, P.A., A.D. Velankar & P. Pramod (2023). Diversity and distribution of birds in the Bharathapuzha River Basin, Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(11): 24169–24183. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8573.15.11.24169-24183 DOI: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8573.15.11.24169-24183
Raj, P.N. & P.A. Azeez (2010). Land use and land cover changes in a tropical river basin: a case from Bharathapuzha River basin, southern India. Journal of Geographic Information System 2(4): 185–193. https://doi.org/10.4236/jgis.2010.24026 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4236/jgis.2010.24026
Raman, T.R.S. (2006). Effects of habitat structure and adjacent habitats on birds in tropical rainforest fragments and shaded plantations in the Western Ghats, India. Biodiversity and Conservation 15: 1577–1607. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-005-2352-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-005-2352-5
Raman, T.R.S. & R. Sukumar (2002). Responses of tropical rainforest birds to abandoned plantations, edges and logged forest in the Western Ghats, India. Animal Conservation 5: 201–216. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1367943002002251 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1367943002002251
Raman, T.R.S. & D. Mudappa (2003). Bridging the gap: sharing responsibility for ecological restoration and wildlife conservation on private lands in the Western Ghats. Social Change 33: 129–141. https://doi.org/10.1177/004908570303300309 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/004908570303300309
Rendón, M.A., A.J. Green, E. Aguilera & P. Almaraz (2008). Status, distribution and long-term changes in the waterbird community wintering in Doñana, southwest Spain. Biological Conservation 141(5): 1371–1388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.03.006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.03.006
Reynolds, R.T., J.M. Scott & R.A. Nussbaum (1980). A variable circular-plot method for estimating bird numbers. The Condor 82(3): 309–313. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1367399
Runge, C.A., J.E.M. Watson, S.H.M. Butchart, J.O. Hanson, H.P. Possingham & R.A. Fuller (2015). Protected areas and global conservation of migratory birds. Science 350: 1255–1258. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac9180 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac9180
Schroeder, P.J. & D.G. Jenkins (2018). How robust are popular beta diversity indices to sampling error? Ecosphere 9(2): e02100. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2100 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2100
Strahler, A.N. (1964). Quantitative Geomorphology of Drainage Basin and Channel Networks, pp. 439–476. In: Chow, V.T. (ed.). Handbook of Applied Hydrology. McGraw Hill Book Company, New York.
Suárez‐Seoane, S., P.E. Osborne & J. Alonso (2002). Large‐scale habitat selection by agricultural steppe birds in Spain: identifying species–habitat responses using generalized additive models. Journal of Applied Ecology 39(5): 755–771. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2664.2002.00751.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2664.2002.00751.x
Variar, A.S., N.R. Anoop, P.A. Vinayan, P.A. Ajayan, N.S. Sujin, A. Ali, P.K. Prasadan, M. K. Smija & S. Babu (2021). Resident birds show different patterns in species composition and functional diversity in differently managed coffee plantations in the Western Ghats, India. Ornithological Science 20(2): 185–199. https://doi.org/10.2326/osj.20.185 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2326/osj.20.185
Waide, R.B., M.R. Willig, C.F. Steiner, G. Mittelbach, L. Gough, S. Dodson, I. Dodson, G.P. Juday & R. Parmenter (1999). The relationship between productivity and species richness. Annual review of Ecology and Systematics 30(1): 257–300. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.30.1.257 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.30.1.257
White, J.G., M.J. Antos, J.A. Fitzsimons & G.C. Palmer (2005). Non-uniform bird assemblages in urban environments: the influence of streetscape vegetation. Landscape and urban planning 71(2–4): 123–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2004.02.006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2004.02.006
Wickham, H. (2016). GGPLOT2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. Springer-Verlag New York, 182 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24277-4_9
Yang, X., Z. Duan, S. Li, C. Zhang, M. Qu, G. Hua & D. Yu (2022). Factors driving the abundance of wintering waterbirds in coastal areas of Guangdong Province. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9. 808105. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.808105 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.808105