Babesa sewage treatment plant as a vital artificial wetland habitat for a multitude of avian species
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Journal of Threatened Taxa
Volume
15
Issue
7
First Page
23472
Last Page
23486
Publisher
Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society
School
School of Education
RAS ID
61858
Abstract
This study aimed to glean basic ecological aspects on diversity and abundance, temporal variation and guild composition of the birds at Babesa Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). The line transect method was used as the sampling technique from November 2021 to October 2022. A total of 80 species belonging to 58 genera, 29 families, and 11 orders were detected, of which three, namely, River Lapwing Vanellus duvaucelii, Falcated Duck Mareca falcata, and Ferruginous Duck Aythya nyroca, are ‘Near Threatened’ with the remaining being ‘Least Concern’. The highest species richness was recorded in the winter (6.29), the highest species diversity in the spring (2.73), and the highest evenness in the summer (0.76). There was not any statistically significant difference between non-waterbirds and waterbirds, or between feeding guilds. However, based on a permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA), the bird composition was significantly different among seasons. Subsequently, pairwise comparisons revealed a significant difference between autumn & winter (P = 0.006), autumn & summer (P = 0.006), autumn & spring (P = 0.018), winter & summer (P = 0.006), winter & spring (P = 0.006) as well as spring & summer (P = 0.006). The non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) biplot showed most bird species overlap occurred between autumn and spring as well as summer and spring, respectively. Taken together, the present results suggest that the Babesa STP holds significant potential as a habitat for diverse avian populations and underscores the ecological significance of artificial wetlands.
DOI
10.11609/jott.8467.15.7.23472-23486
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Nima, P., Timsina, M., Jamtsho, T., & Khanda, P. (2023). Babesa sewage treatment plant as a vital artificial wetland habitat for a multitude of avian species. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 15(7), 23472-23486. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8467.15.7.23472-23486