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Relationships between urban parks and bird diversity in the Bangkok metropolitan area, Thailand

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Abstract

An analysis of the birds in Bangkok’s urban parks and landscapes provided guidance in designing healthy urban ecosystems. This research studied the relationships between bird diversity, park size, distance to the nearest main park, and habitat compositions in 10 urban parks in the Bangkok metropolitan area between January and August in 2013. Thirty sampling points per park were used to observe the number and species of birds in each urban park. A total of 50 bird species were found. Phutthamonthon, the largest urban park (400 ha), contained the greatest number of species (39 species), followed by Suan Luang Rama IX (80 ha and 34 species) and Wachirabenchatat (60 ha and 29 species). Moreover, the diversity index (H′) was highest in Phuttamonthon (1.17), followed by Thawiwanarom (1.08), and Wachirabenchatat (1.04). Larger urban parks and parks closer to the largest urban park had higher species richness than smaller parks and parks further from the largest urban park. The large parks contain higher habitat compositions than small parks. These findings can be applied to future urban ecosystem planning to combine the importance of park size (island size, and its proximity to a large park) and its arrangement, including features such as wetland, forest, buildings and grassland; and provide basic advice for future urban park design, as well as re-design of current urban parks.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand and Public Park Office, Department of Environment, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for providing support, useful data and accommodation during our field study. Our appreciation and thanks to Dr. Thomas N. Stewart, Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University, Thailand, for English editing and friendship. This study is financially supported by the Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University, Thailand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wildlife and Plant Research Centre, Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand

    Rattanawat Chaiyarat, Orawee Wutthithai & Paramita Punwong

  2. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, 91000, Thailand

    Wut Taksintam

Authors
  1. Rattanawat Chaiyarat
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  2. Orawee Wutthithai
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  3. Paramita Punwong
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  4. Wut Taksintam
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rattanawat Chaiyarat.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 7 List of bird species within the 10 urban parks of Bangkok between January and August 2013
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Chaiyarat, R., Wutthithai, O., Punwong, P. et al. Relationships between urban parks and bird diversity in the Bangkok metropolitan area, Thailand. Urban Ecosyst 22, 201–212 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0807-1

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