Abstract
The Indian subcontinent has a vast mix of freshwater, saline, and marine wetlands. Wetlands in the Southern Kerala district (SKD) have a great natural wetlands ecosystem, but it is not well detailed. The present study investigates the anthropogenic factors that shift the ecological status (ES) of wetlands in the SKD because few surveys have been carried out. Seventy-five chosen wetlands were surveyed by a range of methods at five different districts, namely Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Thrissur, and Palakkad districts. Results revealed that most were hydrologically isolated wetlands, and a few were semi-parched in the summer. Dominant forms of wetlands were five acres in size. The human disturbance scores (HDS) showed that the Alappuzha district wetlands was high impacted (HI), the Palakkad district wetlands was mid impacted (MI), and the rest of the district wetlands were in the least impacted (LI) category. Overall, the population around the wetland habitat indicated 500 individuals were common in all wetlands. The Pearson correlation results revealed a statistically significant, positive interaction between the wetland habitat population and the HDS scores noted in riverine wetlands (n = 48), (r = 0.058, p <= 0.687) and palustrine wetlands (n = 13), (r = 0.817, p > 0.000). Also, the correlation test was not significant in Lacustrine wetlands (n = 8), (r = −0.21, p < .954). However, anthropogenic activities caused the all the wetland degradation. The factor-wise degradation of wetlands differs among the districts. The results propose fundamental details on the anthropogenic factors that impact the ecological status of wetlands in SKD, which will aid the extent of regional strategies for wetlands management.
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Amritha, P.S., Varunprasath, K. (2022). Anthropogenic Factors Change the Ecological Condition of Wetlands in the Southern Kerala Districts in India. In: Islam, M.N., Amstel, A.v. (eds) India II: Climate Change Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation in Developing Countries. Springer Climate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94395-0_8
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