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Investigating Present Status of Floodplain Wetlands as Habitat of Water Birds and its Determinants: An Experience from Lower Part of Deltaic West Bengal, India

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Abstract

The wetlands of the Ganges delta have rendered complimentary habitats to a diverse range of water birds. But human intervention accompanied with some natural factors has deteriorated the quality of these habitats. Present study aims to assess the status of avifaunal habitability of 21 floodplain wetlands, interspersed over the lower part of the Ganges delta by using Avifaunal Habitability Index (AHI). Seven widely used Ecological Indicators namely Avifauna Density, Total numbers of Avifauna, Simpson Index of Species Dominance, Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index, Species Richness, Simpsons Reciprocal Index, and Shannon Evenness Index have been used to compute AHI. The result unveils that wetlands like Purbasthali (11.58), Chariganga (5.51), Char Chakundi–I (4.81) have granted higher avifaunal habitability while wetlands like Sudhakarpur (-4.23), Akandanga (-3.5), and Raibali (-3.29) have revealed perceptible degenerated situation. Spatial variation of the habitability status is examined by Wetland Threat Index (WTI) and size of the wetlands. One way ANOVA-Tukey’s post hoc test exhibits that wetlands with less threat (WTI > 0.08) extends healthier habitats (p < 0.001; F = 5.79) and vice-versa. Subsequently, the study also reveals that larger wetlands (> 101 ha) have recorded greater AHI score than the small wetlands ((< 40 ha) at < 0.001 significance level (F = 13.40)). Therefore, this paper not only categorizes some floodplain wetlands based on AHI but also addresses spatial pattern and determinants of such habitability status over the Ganges delta. This study may attract the researchers and policy makers to assess the health of wetlands by using simple composite index in local to global level.

সারাংশঃ

গাঙ্গেয় ব-দ্বীপের জলাভূমিগুলি বিভিন্ন প্রজাতির জলচর পাখির বসবাসের অনুকূল প্রাকৃতিক পরিবেশ তৈরি করেছে। কিন্তু, মানুষের হস্তক্ষেপ ও তৎসহ কিছু প্রাকৃতিক কারণ উক্ত আবাসস্থলগুলির গুণমানের অবনতি ঘটাচ্ছে। বর্তমান গবেষণাটির লক্ষ্য হল অ্যাভিফাউনাল হ্যাবিটেবিলিটি ইনডেক্স বা ‘পক্ষীকুল বাসযোগ্যতার সূচক’ ব্যবহারের মাধ্যমে নিম্ন গাঙ্গেয় ব-দ্বীপের উপর ইতস্তত বিক্ষিপ্ত জলাভূমিগুলির বাসযোগ্যতার গুণমানের মূল্যায়ন করা। সাতটি বহুল ব্যবহৃত বাস্তুতান্ত্রিক নির্দেশক যথা পাখির মোট সংখ্যা, ঘনত্ত্ব, প্রজাতির প্রাচুর্য, প্রজাতির আধিপত্য বিষয়ক সিম্পসন সূচক, শ্যানন-উইনার বৈচিত্র্য সূচক, শ্যানন সমতাসূচক এবং সিম্পসন পারস্পরিক সূচক ব্যবহারের মাধ্যমে উপরিউক্ত সূচকটি নির্ণয় করা হয়েছে। প্রাপ্ত ফলাফল কিছু জলাভূমি যেমন পূর্বস্থলী (১১.৫৮), ছাড়িগঙ্গা (৫.৫১), এবং চরচাকুন্ডি-১ (৪.৮১)-এর বাসযোগ্যতার উন্নত মানকে প্রকাশ করেছে। অন্যদিকে, সুধাকরপুর(-৪.২৩), আকনডাঙ্গা (-৩.৫) এবং রাইবালি (-৩.২৯) এর মত বেশ কিছু জলাভূমি লক্ষণীয়ভাবে অবক্ষয়িত অবস্থাকে প্রকাশ করেছে।ওয়েটল্যান্ড থ্রেট ইনডেক্স বা জলাভূমির বিপদ্গ্রস্থতার সূচক এবং জলাভূমিগুলির ক্ষেত্রীয় বিস্তারের ভিত্তিতে তাদের বাসযোগ্যতার মাত্রার স্থানিক বণ্টনের তারতম্য নির্ধারণ করা হয়েছে। একমুখী অ্যানোভা-টুকি’স পোস্ট-হক টেস্ট প্রমাণ করে যে, বিপদের কম আশঙ্কাযুক্ত জলাভূমিগুলি সুস্বাস্থ্যকর আবাসস্থল প্রদান করে। উপরন্তু, সমীক্ষাটি আরও নির্দেশ করে যে, বৃহদায়তন জলাভূমিগুলি (আয়তন ১০০ হেক্টরের বেশি), অপেক্ষাকৃত ক্ষুদ্রাকার (আয়তন ৪০ হেক্টরের কম)জলাভূমিগুলি চেয়ে উত্তম বাসযোগ্যতা সৃষ্টি করেছে। অতএব, এই গবেষণাপত্রটি কেবল পক্ষীকুলের বাসযোগ্যতার ভিত্তিতে গাঙ্গেয় প্লাবনভূমিতে অবস্থিত জলাভূমিদের পার্থক্যই করে না, বরং এইরূপ বাসযোগ্যতার স্থানিক বিন্যাস ও তার নির্ধারকদেরও চিহ্নিত করে। স্থানীয় স্তর থেকে আন্তর্জাতিক স্তর অবধি সাধারণ যৌগিক সূচক ব্যবহারের মাধ্যমে জলাভুমির স্বাস্থ্যের মূল্যায়নের ক্ষেত্রে এই সমীক্ষাটি গবেষকবৃন্দ ও নীতি-নির্ধারকদের আকৃষ্ট করতে পারে।

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and co-operation of the local villagers, resides on the banks of the selected wetlands for their during the field survey. They also express their heartfelt gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments, suggestion, and assistance for improving the quality of the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Krishnagar Govt. College, Krishnagar, 741101, Nadia, West Bengal, India

    Mehedi Hasan Mandal

  2. Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Bardhaman, India

    Benojir Yasmin & Subhendu Ghosh

  3. Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Purba Bardhaman, Burdwan, 713104, West Bengal, India

    Arindam Roy

  4. Department of Geography, the University of Burdwan, Golapbag, Burdwan, 713104, West Bengal, India

    Giyasuddin Siddique

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  1. Mehedi Hasan Mandal
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Contributions

All authors collectively designed the study. Mehedi Hasan Mandal, Arindam Roy and Subhendu Ghosh collected the data/information through field visits. Data tabulation and analysis were performed by Mehedi Hasan Mandal and Benojir Yasmin under the guidance of Dr. Giyasuddin Siddique. Mehedi Hasan Mandal wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Giyasuddin Siddique, Arindam Roy, Benojir Yasmin and Subhedu Ghosh commented on previous version of the manuscript and also incorporated their inputs to improve the quality of the article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mehedi Hasan Mandal.

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Mandal, M.H., Yasmin, B., Roy, A. et al. Investigating Present Status of Floodplain Wetlands as Habitat of Water Birds and its Determinants: An Experience from Lower Part of Deltaic West Bengal, India. Wetlands 42, 70 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-022-01591-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-022-01591-1

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