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Original Article • Braz. J. Biol. 84 • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1519-6984.251197   copy

Assessment of anthropogenic-causing-agents act on waterbirds-diversity in the vicinity of Tarbela Dam, Indus River, Pakistan

Avaliação de agentes antropogênicos que agem na diversidade de aves aquáticas nas proximidades da Represa de Tarbela, rio Indus, Paquistão

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

Birds are among the best bio-indicators, which can guide us to recognize some of the main conservation concerns in ecosystems. Anthropogenic impacts such as deforestation, habitat degradation, modification of landscapes, and decreased quality of habitats are major threats to bird diversity. The present study was designed to detect anthropogenic causative agents that act on waterbird diversity in Tarbella Dam, Indus River, Pakistan. Waterbird censuses were carried out from March 2019 to February 2020 in multiple areas around the dam. A total of 2990 waterbirds representing 63 species were recorded. We detected the highest waterbird richness and diversity at Pehure whereas the highest density was recorded at Kabbal. Human activity impacts seemed to be the main factor determining the waterbird communities as waterbirds were negatively correlated with the greatest anthropogenic impacts. Waterbirds seem to respond rapidly to human disturbance.

Keywords:
Indus; landscape; deforestation; waterbirds

Resumo

As aves estão entre os melhores bioindicadores, o que pode nos orientar a reconhecer algumas das principais preocupações de conservação dos ecossistemas. Impactos antrópicos como desmatamento, degradação de habitat, modificação de paisagens e diminuição da qualidade dos habitats são as principais ameaças à diversidade de aves. O presente estudo foi desenhado para detectar agentes causadores antropogênicos que atuam na diversidade de aves aquáticas na Represa de Tarbella, rio Indus, Paquistão. Censos de aves aquáticas foram realizados de março de 2019 a fevereiro de 2020 em várias áreas ao redor da barragem. Um total de 2.990 aves aquáticas representando 63 espécies foi registrado. Detectamos a maior riqueza e diversidade de aves aquáticas em Pehure, enquanto a maior densidade foi registrada em Kabbal. Os impactos da atividade humana parecem ser o principal fator determinante das comunidades de aves aquáticas, uma vez que as aves aquáticas foram negativamente correlacionadas com os maiores impactos antrópicos. As aves aquáticas parecem responder rapidamente às perturbações humanas.

Palavras-chave:
Indus; paisagem; desmatamento; aves aquáticas

1. Introduction

Wetlands are vital for all living beings (Ashraf et al., 2019ASHRAF, S., RIAZ, A. and MUHAMMAD, N., 2019. Assessments of avian diversity of Uchhali lake, Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 8-15.; Ghermandi et al., 2008GHERMANDI, A., VANDENBERGH, J.C., BRANDER, L.M., DEGROOT, H.L. and NUNES, P.A., 2008. The economic value of wetland conservation and creation: a meta-analysis.Milan: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.; Ten Brink et al., 2012TEN BRINK, P., BADURA, T., FARMER, A. and RUSSI, D., 2012. The economics of ecosystem and biodiversity for water and wetlands: a briefing note.London: Institute for European Environmental Policy, 9 p.), necessary for life (Ali et al., 2018ALI, A., KHAN, M.S.H. and ALTAF, M., 2018. Winter survey of birds at district of the Badin, Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 11-22.) and the evolution of life (Greb et al., 2006GREB, S.F., DIMICHELE, W.A. and GASTALDO, R.A., 2006. Evolution and importance of wetlands in earth history. Special Papers-Geological Society of America, 399, 1.). Approximately, 2.5 million square kilometers of the earth is covered by wetlands. Almost, 2400 Ramsar sites are documented in whole world (Ramsar, 2014RAMSAR, 2014. Wetlands of International importance (Ramsar sites). Available from: https://www.ramsar.org/about/wetlands-of-international-importance-ramsar-sites.
https://www.ramsar.org/about/wetlands-of... ). Out of the total wetland area, 0.78 Million hectares area is in Pakistan, 19 Ramsar sites are noted in Pakistan (Altaf et al., 2014Altaf, M., Javid, A. and Umair, M. 2014. Biodiversity of Ramsar sites in Pakistan. LAP, 1-88.).

Loss of habitat due to anthropogenic effects can be a reason for habitat fragments (Anjos, 2004ANJOS, L., 2004. Species richness and relative abundance of birds in natural and anthropogenic fragments of Brazilian Atlantic forest.Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 429-434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0001-37652004000200036.PMid:15258661.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0001-37652004... ; Leal et al., 2011LEAL, A.I., MARTINS, R.C., PALMEIRIM, J.M. and GRANADEIRO, J.P., 2011. Influence of habitat fragments on bird assemblages in Cork Oak woodlands.Bird Study, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 309-320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2011.576235.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2011.... ) and degradation of habitat quality (Rais et al., 2010RAIS, M., KABEER, B., ANWAR, M. and MEHMOOD, T., 2010. Effect of habitat degradation on breeding water birds at Kallar Kahar Lake district Chakwal.Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 318-320.) and increased intensity of edge effects (Berry, 2001BERRY, L., 2001. Edge effects on the distribution and abundance of birds in a southern Victorian forest.Wildlife Research, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 239-245. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR00057.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR00057... ). The changes in habitat mainly influence range-restricted, rare birds, specialists, and migrants avian fauna (Bett et al., 2016BETT, M.C., MUCHAI, M. and WAWERU, C., 2016. Avian species diversity in different habitat types in and around North Nandi Forest, Kenya.African Journal of Ecology, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 342-348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/aje.12338.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/aje.12338... ). Main reason in decline of avian diversity is human activities impacts (Altaf, 2016ALTAF, M., 2016. Assessment of avian and mammalian diversity at selected sites along river Chenab.Lahore: University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, 197 p. PhD Thesis in Philosophy.). This shows that there is high risk to various tropical species of birds, because they are scarcely distributed and don’t bear conditions outside of specific forest (Turner, 1996TURNER, I., 1996. Species loss in fragments of tropical rain forest: a review of the evidence.Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 200-209. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2404743.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2404743... ).

To knowing anthropogenic impacts on avian species is important for developing appropriate management guidelines and conservation plans (Ricketts and Imhoff, 2003RICKETTS, T. and IMHOFF, M., 2003. Biodiversity, urban areas, and agriculture: locating priority ecoregions for conservation.Conservation Ecology, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. art1. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-00593-080201.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-00593-08020... ). Particularly, the kind of relationship between anthropogenic influences and avian species inhabiting the site will govern the management and conservation approaches that can be utilized. If anthropogenic impact and avian species diversity show a positive relationship, conflicts are likely to rise due to the high need for humans for places and their sites at higher hazard (Chown et al., 2003CHOWN, S.L., VAN RENSBURG, B.J., GASTON, K.J., RODRIGUES, A.S. and VAN JAARSVELD, A.S., 2003. Energy, species richness, and human population size: conservation implications at a national scale.Ecological Applications, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 1233-1241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/02-5105.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/02-5105... ). So, conservation and management efforts should focus on sites where anthropogenic influences are previously high and compensate for awaiting conflicts (Carroll et al., 2004CARROLL, C., NOSS, R.F., PAQUET, P.C. and SCHUMAKER, N.H., 2004. Extinction debt of protected areas in developing landscapes.Conservation Biology, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 1110-1120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00083.x.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.20... ). On the other hand, a negative relationship between anthropogenic influences and biodiversity proposes that the focus should be on sites with low human activities impacts because they harbor better diversity and may be higher effective in management and conservation (Luck et al., 2004LUCK, G.W., RICKETTS, T.H., DAILY, G.C. and IMHOFF, M., 2004. Alleviating spatial conflict between people and biodiversity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 182-186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2237148100. PMid:14681554.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.223714810... ).

The avian species are important for human (Jadoon et al., 2019JADOON, A., BIBI, S. and REHMAN, A., 2019. Birds’ population in district Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 18-25.; Mughal et al., 2020MUGHAL, S., PERVAZ, M., BASHIR, S.M. and SHAMASHAD, S.S., 2020. Assessment of diversity and ethnopharmacological uses of birds in Chakar, Hattian Bala district, Azad Jammu and Kashmir -Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 35-44.) and the best bio-indicators (Ashraf et al., 2018ASHRAF, S., KANWAL, S., HAIDER, M.S. and ALTAF, M., 2018. Diversity of birds in rural and urban habitats of district Sargodha, Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 26-36.; Bibby, 1999BIBBY, C.J., 1999. Making the most of birds as environmental indicators.The Ostrich, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 81-88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00306525.1999.9639752.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00306525.1999.... ; Khan et al., 2021KHAN, R.U., PANHWAR, W.A., MEMON, K.H. and LARIK, S.A., 2021. Effects of lead on feathers of grey francolin Francolinus pondicerianus.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 7-12.), because they respond to environment change and human activity and guide us to recognize the main concern ecosystems for conservation. Major threats to the birds of Pakistan are illegal hunting, poaching, livestock grazing, deforestation, agriculture intensification, urbanization, industrialization, pollution, and climate change. All these threats are the main causing agents to decline and extinction of avian species. Same study is conducted in different elevation and ecosystems of Pakistan and other parts of world. Because threats are present in study area, therefore we decided to know the anthropogenic impacts on different sites of Tarbella Dam, Indus River, Pakistan.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study area

The data were collected from March 2019 to February 2020and selected sub areas as; Kalabat town, Kiara, Labadam, Pehur, Sobera, Balongi, Kabbal and Gala (Table 1 and Figure 1). The Tarbela Dam is 2nd largest rock-filled dam built in world. The dam is present on the Indus river (34o 7́ 35״North, 72o 48́ 37״ East) in Haripur District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about fifty kilometers northwest of Islamabad. The climate in Tarbella Dam is hot in summer (April to September) with maximum temperatures between 38 to 46 °C. Winters are relatively cold with minimum temperatures between 3 to 14 °C. Average rainfall recorded was as 1026mm/annum. The humidity is relatively high throughout the year. Total 130 genera of plants were documented from the study area. Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Leguminosae and Euphoriaceae are the most dominant families are present in Tarbella Dam. A total of 29 mammalian species, 9 species of amphibians and 26 species of reptiles and 89 species of water bird including 68 migratory avian species are documented from Tarbela dam (Khan, 2006KHAN, M.S., 2006. Amphibians and reptiles of Pakistan.Malabar: Krieger Publishing Company.; Rafique et al., 2020RAFIQUE, A., BURIAN, S., HASSAN, D. and BANO, R., 2020. Analysis of operational changes of Tarbela reservoir to improve the water supply, hydropower generation, and flood control objectives.Sustainability, vol. 12, no. 18, pp. 7822. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12187822.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12187822... ; Roberts, 1991ROBERTS, T.J., 1991. The birds of Pakistan.Karachi: Oxford University Press, 598 p., 1992ROBERTS, T.J., 1992. The birds of Pakistan.Karachi: Oxford University Press, 617 p.).

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Table 1
Habitats and their coordinates at Tarbella Dam, levels of anthropogenic impacts were noted directly as well as with Google earth.
Figure 1
Map of the study area, that consist of study sites like Kalabat, Kiara, Sobra, Balongi, Kabbal, Labadam and Galla.

2.2. Sampling layout

The diversity of waterfowl of study area was estimated through linear count survey method and the direct (i.e. physical count mean direct observation with camera and naked eye and voices) and indirect (i.e. nests and group questionnaire surveys or meetings) methods were utilized. Each study site consists of 500 hectare square area. To identify the avian species of the study area, key books i.e. “Birds of Pakistan”(Mirza and Wasiq, 2007MIRZA, Z.B. and WASIQ, H., 2007. A field guide to birds of Pakistan.Lahore: Bookland, 244 p.) and “Birds of the Indian subcontinent” (Grimmett et al., 1998GRIMMETT, R., INSKIPP, C. and INSKIP, T., 1998. Birds of the Indian subcontinent.London: Christopher Helm.) were utilized.

2.3. Statistical analysis

The data were analyzed through PAST software (version 3) and Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H’), Dominance (D), Simpson Index (S), Richness (R) and Evenness (E) were recorded following (Hammert et al., 2001HAMMERT, Q., HARPER, D.A.T. and RYAN, P.D., 2001. Past paleontological statistical software package for education and data analysis.Palaeontologia Electronica, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1-9.).

Census Index/Density was computed using following Formula 1.

C e n s u s I n d e x = n u m b e r s o f b i r d s / a r e a 500 h e c t a r e (1)

3. Results and Discussion

During the study period total populations of 2990 waterbirds representing 63 species were recorded from Tarbella Dam (Table 2 and Figure 2). Species richness was the highest at the Pehure (i.e. PE) with 9.613, the richness in the other places was 8.496, 7.849, 7.666, 6.848, 6.588, 6.513 and 6.251at Kalabat town (abbreviated as KT), Kiara (abbreviated as KI), Sobra (abbreviated as SO), Balongi (abbreviated as BA), Kabbal (abbreviated as KA), Labadam (abbreviated as LA) and Galla (abbreviated as GA) respectively. Collected statistical data demonstrates that Shannon-Wiener diversity index gives a quantitative description of diversity which was the highest at PE (H’=3.85) followed by KT (3.567), SO (3.51), KI (3.516), BA (3.436), KA (3.431), GA (3.242) and LA (3.321). Similarly, Simpson diversity index (S) which is used to measure avian species; was the highest at PE (0.975) followed by KT (0.9618), SO (0.9631), BA (0.9618), KI (0.96), KA (0.9597), LA (0.9533) and GA (0.9329). The highest density (D’=1.024) recorded from the KB. The highest dominance (D) was noted from GA (0.06713) and the lowest dominance recorded from BC (0.02). While the highest Evenness (E=9.613) was recorded from PE. During the survey noted that the highest Evenness (CI=1.202) was recorded from GA (Table 3).

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Table 2
Waterbirds diversity of the study area.
Figure 2
Status of waterbirds species in the study area, more than fifty percent are residents while others are migrants.
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Table 3
Diversity indices of waterbirds of study area.

The status of waterbirds of Tarbella Dam, Indus river, Pakistan was calculated as; Near Threatened 3, Endangered 1, Vulnerable 1 and Least Count 58 (Table 2 and Figure 2). Distribution was noted as; 22 resident and 33 winter visitor, 2 summer breeder, 1 isolated and 2 year-round visitors (Figure 3). The feeding habits of the avian species noted as; Carnivore (n=37), Omnivore (19) and Herbivore (7) (Figure 4). This data are collected from Book “Birds of Pakistan” Roberts (Roberts, 1992ROBERTS, T.J., 1992. The birds of Pakistan.Karachi: Oxford University Press, 617 p.; 1991ROBERTS, T.J., 1991. The birds of Pakistan.Karachi: Oxford University Press, 598 p.).

Figure 3
Distribution of waterbirds species in the study area, more than 90% species has no threats while other species are facing threats according to IUCN (Least Count (LC), Vulnerable (VU), Near Threatened (NT), EN (Endangered).
Figure 4
Feeding habits of waterbird species in the study area.

The statistical analysis of cluster analysis shows that two groups are present in the cluster analysis i.e. Group one (G1) and Group two (G2). SG1 consists of PE, selected landscape was 10% anthropogenically impacted. G2 has two subgroups i.e. SG2a and SG2b. Both groups show extremely low similarity (-0.32). SG2b consists of GA and KA, both were 60% and 70% anthropogenically impacted respectively. G2a consists of two further subgroups i.e. G2a-I and G2a-II. G2a-I consists of SO, LA and BA, all were 40%, 50% and 50% respectively anthropogenically impacted. G2a-II consists of KT and KI, both were 30% anthropogenically impacted (Figure 5). Cluster analysis show that different study sites have different level of anthropogenic impact and so more effected study sites have more affected on the diversity of waterbirds. Anthropogenic impacts are noted as; urbanization, agriculture, industrialization, fishing, hunting and tourism, which are negatively impact on avian species (Ali et al., 2020ALI, A., KHAN, M.S.H. and ALTAF, M., 2020. Analysis of anthropogenic activities on avian diversity along the coastal landscape of Sindh, Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 94-110.; Altaf, 2016ALTAF, M., 2016. Assessment of avian and mammalian diversity at selected sites along river Chenab.Lahore: University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, 197 p. PhD Thesis in Philosophy.; Bashir et al., 2018BASHIR, S.M., RASHID, Z., MUMTAZ, B., ALTAF, M., RAUF, K., HAIDER, R., SAFEER, B., FAROOQ, S.I., SAFDAR, L., MANZOOR, I., YASRUB, S. and IFTIKHAR, A., 2018. Assessment of behavioral ecology, folklore and medicinal uses of Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) in district Bagh-Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 13-21.; Haider et al., 2017HAIDER, R., ALTAF, M., RASHEED, Z., RAUF, K., MUMTAZ, B., ALTAF, M., SHABIR, M., HAKEEM, F. and IFTIKHAR, A., 2017. Assessment of behavioral study, human activities impacts and interaction with white cheeked bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis) in district Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan.Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 17-24.; Hakeem et al., 2017HAKEEM, F., ALTAF, M., MANZOOR, S., RAUF, K., MUMTAZ, B., BASHIR, M., HAIDER, R., FAROOQ, S.I., SAFDAR, L. and ALTAF, M., 2017. Assessment of behavioral study, human activities impacts and interaction with Streak laughingthrush (Trochalopteron lineatum) in district Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir-Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 1-7.; Rauf et al., 2017RAUF, K., ALTAF, M., MUMTAZ, B., ALTAF, M., HAIDER, R., SAFEER, B., FAROOQ, S.I., SAFDAR, L., MANZOOR, M., YASRUB, S., BASHIR, S.M. and IFTIKHAR, A., 2017. Assessment of behavior, distribution, ecology and interaction study of Cinnamon Tree Sparrow (Passer rutilans) in district Bagh-Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 43-49.).

Figure 5
Analysis of anthropogenic impacts on the study areas with the help of cluster (Jaccard) analysis.

The two axes of the PCA explained 88.782% of difference in avian diversity (PC 1: 77.799%; PC 2: 10.983). Variables loading onto PC 1 included KT (r = 0.37222), GA (r = 00.76394), PE (r = 0.13562), SO (r = 0.16852), LA (r = 0.29682), KI (r = 0.23431), BA (r = 0.16765) and KA (r = 0.24484). The direction of these associations shows that PC 1 synthesized the response of the avian community from natural to anthropogenically impacted landscapes as well as can be documented as a gradient of development extent. Natural and disturbed habitats also loaded into PC 2 (KT: r = 0.53806, GA: r = -0.63746, PE: r = 0.17178, SO: r = 0.20238, LA: r = -.26481, KI: r = 0.27525, BA: r = 0.21203 and KA: r = 0.20694). Both principal component (PC) is not correlated with each other; likewise, water-birds’ diversity patterns extracted by component 2 are not related to those explained by component 1. Approximately, all variables (i.e. study sites) do not resemble noticeably with each other in PCA. It is noted that human activity impacts were the main factor determining the waterbirds community (Figure 6 and 7). These variables show that waterbirds species has the highest negative correlation with the greatest anthropogenically impacted study sites as studied by other researchers (Bashir et al., 2018BASHIR, S.M., RASHID, Z., MUMTAZ, B., ALTAF, M., RAUF, K., HAIDER, R., SAFEER, B., FAROOQ, S.I., SAFDAR, L., MANZOOR, I., YASRUB, S. and IFTIKHAR, A., 2018. Assessment of behavioral ecology, folklore and medicinal uses of Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) in district Bagh-Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 13-21.; Haider et al., 2017HAIDER, R., ALTAF, M., RASHEED, Z., RAUF, K., MUMTAZ, B., ALTAF, M., SHABIR, M., HAKEEM, F. and IFTIKHAR, A., 2017. Assessment of behavioral study, human activities impacts and interaction with white cheeked bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis) in district Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan.Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 17-24.; Rauf et al., 2017RAUF, K., ALTAF, M., MUMTAZ, B., ALTAF, M., HAIDER, R., SAFEER, B., FAROOQ, S.I., SAFDAR, L., MANZOOR, M., YASRUB, S., BASHIR, S.M. and IFTIKHAR, A., 2017. Assessment of behavior, distribution, ecology and interaction study of Cinnamon Tree Sparrow (Passer rutilans) in district Bagh-Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 43-49.). During the research documented that specialized birds are declined due to deforestation, degradation and modification of study sites, waterbirds diversity also has positively relation with plant species and insect species by Fraterrigo and Wiens (2005)FRATERRIGO, J.M. and WIENS, J.A., 2005. Bird communities of the Colorado Rocky Mountains along a gradient of exurban development.Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 263-275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0169-2046(04)00080-5.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0169-2046(04)... .

Figure 6
Principal components analysis represents the diversity of birds (code present in Table 2) across the different habitats.
Figure 7
Evaluation of each component in Principal components analysis.

During the survey noted that foodstuff is also a main factor in the distribution of species, specialist waterbirds are recorded in restricted areas; on the other hand, generalist birds are documented in variety of landscapes, this concept is also documented by researcher (Ali et al., 2020ALI, A., KHAN, M.S.H. and ALTAF, M., 2020. Analysis of anthropogenic activities on avian diversity along the coastal landscape of Sindh, Pakistan.Journal of Wildlife and Ecology, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 94-110.; Altaf, 2016ALTAF, M., 2016. Assessment of avian and mammalian diversity at selected sites along river Chenab.Lahore: University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, 197 p. PhD Thesis in Philosophy.; Clavel et al., 2010CLAVEL, J., JULLIARD, R. and DEVICTOR, V., 2010. Worldwide decline of specialist species: toward a global functional homogenization?Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 222-228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/080216.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/080216... ; Devictor et al., 2007DEVICTOR, V., JULLIARD, R., COUVET, D., LEE, A. and JIGUET, F., 2007. Functional homogenization effect of urbanization on bird communities.Conservation Biology, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 741-751. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00671.x. PMid:17531052.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.20... ; Fernández-Juricic, 2004FERNÁNDEZ-JURICIC, E., 2004. Spatial and temporal analysis of the distribution of forest specialists in an urban-fragmented landscape (Madrid, Spain): implications for local and regional bird conservation.Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 17-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2003.09.001.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.... ). Insect and Garbage in anthropogenically impacted landscapes are highly positively related with one another. Due to anthropogenic impacts, insectivore particularly omnivore species of waterfowl have high population in modified landscape. Urban and rural area provides food and shelters, which attracted to insectivore and omnivore waterfowls. On the other hand, some waterfowl species do not like human presence in their environment, in the response; many waterfowl species are restricted in niche.

It is documented that agriculture intensification also creates negative impacts on the waterfowl diversity, due to direct as well as indirect impacts i.e. noise, air and water pollution. It is also documented that diversity and distribution is increase at the ecotone regions. Bushes and herbs also create positive impact for the waterfowl diversity and this concept is also supported by the ornithologist (Fernández-Juricic, 2004FERNÁNDEZ-JURICIC, E., 2004. Spatial and temporal analysis of the distribution of forest specialists in an urban-fragmented landscape (Madrid, Spain): implications for local and regional bird conservation.Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 17-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2003.09.001.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.... ; Golawski and Kasprzykowski, 2011GOLAWSKI, A. and KASPRZYKOWSKI, Z., 2011. The significance of cereal stubble and manure heaps for birds wintering in the farmland of eastern Poland. Ardeola, vol. 58, no. 2, pp. 277-286. http://dx.doi.org/10.13157/arla.58.2.2011.277.
http://dx.doi.org/10.13157/arla.58.2.201... ; Hiron et al., 2013HIRON, M., BERG, Å., EGGERS, S., JOSEFSSON, J. and PÄRT, T., 2013. Bird diversity relates to agri-environment schemes at local and landscape level in intensive farmland.Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, vol. 176, pp. 9-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2013.05.013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2013.05... ).

4. Conclusion

During the study, noted that human activities are the major issue that creates negative as well as positive impacts on the diversity and distribution of avian species. Waterbirds species respond rapidly to human activities disturbance. We recommended that Government Organizations or departments and NGOs should work to conserve the disturbed habitats.

Acknowledgements

Authors are highly thankful for help of the birdwatchers, hunters, government employees and local people.

References

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    26 Nov 2021
  • Date of issue
    2024

History

  • Received
    17 Apr 2021
  • Accepted
    10 Aug 2021
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