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A cross-taxonomic comparison of bird and butterfly communities of Tamhini Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra, India, spanning two decades


Affiliations
1 Annasaheb Kulkarni Department of Biodiversity, MES Abasaheb Garware College, Pune 411 004, India; Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India, India
2 Department of Zoology, MES Abasaheb Garware College, Pune 411 004, India; Institute of Natural History Education and Research, Pune 411 038, India, India
 

Human disturbance can alter the structure and function of ecological communities. We studied the bird and butterfly communities of Tamhini Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra, India, to understand the effects of changing land use and management in two decades. We replicated a previous study conducted between 1998 and 2001; sampling seven line transects every fortnight between April 2016 and April 2017. Species diversity increased for both taxa, and community composition was significantly different across studies. Generalist species witnessed a maximum increase in diversity, while some specialist guilds declined. While this study is limited in spatial scale, we highlight the effects of local changes in land use and management across trophic levels and the cascading effects on ecosystem function

Keywords

Conservation management, functional diversity , indicator species, landscape change, wildlife sanctuary.
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  • A cross-taxonomic comparison of bird and butterfly communities of Tamhini Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra, India, spanning two decades

Abstract Views: 323  |  PDF Views: 130

Authors

Shawn Dsouza
Annasaheb Kulkarni Department of Biodiversity, MES Abasaheb Garware College, Pune 411 004, India; Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India, India
Anand Padhye
Department of Zoology, MES Abasaheb Garware College, Pune 411 004, India; Institute of Natural History Education and Research, Pune 411 038, India, India

Abstract


Human disturbance can alter the structure and function of ecological communities. We studied the bird and butterfly communities of Tamhini Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra, India, to understand the effects of changing land use and management in two decades. We replicated a previous study conducted between 1998 and 2001; sampling seven line transects every fortnight between April 2016 and April 2017. Species diversity increased for both taxa, and community composition was significantly different across studies. Generalist species witnessed a maximum increase in diversity, while some specialist guilds declined. While this study is limited in spatial scale, we highlight the effects of local changes in land use and management across trophic levels and the cascading effects on ecosystem function

Keywords


Conservation management, functional diversity , indicator species, landscape change, wildlife sanctuary.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv123%2Fi10%2F1253-1258