Infuence of Crop Heterogeneity on Avian Diversity and Trait Composition in Urban Agro‑Ecosystems

BIBHU PRASAD PANDA; BISHAL KUMAR MAJHI; MRIGANKA SHEKHAR SARKAR; LM LEVEAU; ANUJA TARINI MISHRA; SIBA PRASAD PARIDA

Proceedings of the Zoological Society

Springer India

Año: 2023

0373-5893

Environmental heterogeneity has a signifcantrole in configuring native species diversity. Studies haveshown that agricultural crops impact bird diversity in urbanand peri-urban areas. This paper has examined how cropheterogeneity influences avian diversity and its trait composition in India’s tropical urban and peri-urban agriculturallandscape. Eighty sampling points have been selected in foursampling sites (20×4) of Bhubaneswar, India, where largeagricultural patches are available. Different diversity indicesof each site and Relative Diversity Indices (RDI) of all families were computed. A regression analysis was performed toassess whether crop richness affected native bird abundanceand richness. The result shows that 11,259 individuals of135 bird species belonging to 18 orders, 52 families and42 genera were recorded in 4 sampling sites. The order ofpopulation at study sites is OUAT (3382 individuals, 104species)>Daruthenga (2838 individuals, 95 species)>Kalyanapur (2585 individuals, 75 species)>Sundarpada (2454individuals, 69 species). The regression analysis showed the crop richness positively influenced avian diversity.This study supports the theory of multi-crop farming landssupporting higher species richness and abundance. Hereit is concluded that heterogeneous crop lands have higherspecies holding capacity than single-crop agricultural lands.Therefore, conserving multi-crop urban agroecosystems willhelp save urban avian diversity.