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Factors Affecting the Habitat Suitability of Eastern Swamp Deer (Rucervus duvaucelii ranjitsinhi Groves, 1982) in Manas National Park and Implication for Terai Grassland Restoration

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Ecosystem and Species Habitat Modeling for Conservation and Restoration

Abstract

Conservation management to aid in the recovery of threatened species requires an understanding of their habitat availability and preference. Species distribution modelling can help delineate critical habitats to frame conservation decisions, particularly for a habitat-specialist species. Swamp deer is a grassland-obligate species, with three subspecies identified based on physical and geographic variations. Of these, the eastern swamp deer has restricted distribution and occurs only in two protected areas in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, India. With assisted conservation efforts, the swamp deer population has revived in Manas National Park from an erstwhile heavily reduced remnant population. Through this paper an attempt has been made to analyse the patterns of swamp deer occurrence as determined by habitat variables using random forest algorithm models. The results indicate that the optimal habitats of swamp deer are the large grassland patches with wet climatic conditions, measured by the precipitation and evapotranspiration, within the broad grassland habitat of the park. The findings have significant implications for the conservation of the threatened grassland habitat and its obligate species in the Terai grasslands of the region.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Assam Forest Department and Bodoland Territorial Region for issuing necessary permits for various field-based studies that form part of this paper. The Field Directorate of Manas Tiger Project and the forest frontline staffs are thanked for the logistics support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Anukul Nath

  2. Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Nazrul Islam

  3. University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Shahid Ahmad Dar

  4. Aaranyak, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Alolika Sinha & Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar

  5. Department of Environment and Forest, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Sonali Ghosh

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  1. Anukul Nath
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Critical Zone Research Group, Water Technology and Management Division, CSIR-NEERI, Nagpur, India

    Shalini Dhyani

  2. Plant Ecology & Climate Change Science, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India

    Dibyendu Adhikari

  3. School of Public Policy, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India

    Rajarshi Dasgupta

  4. Cleaner Technology and Modeling Division, CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, India

    Rakesh Kadaverugu

Appendix: List of 36 Habitat Variables Used for Habitat Suitability Modelling for Eastern Swamp Deer

Appendix: List of 36 Habitat Variables Used for Habitat Suitability Modelling for Eastern Swamp Deer

Predictor variable

Source

Description

Units

Group 1: Climate

Annual potential evapotranspiration (PET)

ENVIREM (http://envirem.github.io; Title and Bemmels 2018)

Mean monthly estimates

mm/month

PET seasonality

Monthly variability in potential evapotranspiration

mm/month

PET of the coldest quarter

Mean monthly PET of the coldest quarter

mm/month

PET of the driest quarter

Mean monthly PET of the driest quarter

mm/month

PET of the warmest quarter

Mean monthly PET of the warmest quarter

mm/month

PET of the wettest quarter

Mean monthly PET of the wettest quarter

mm/month

Maximum temperature of the coldest month

Maximum temperature of the coldest month, i.e. January

°C

Minimum temperature of the warmest month

Minimum temperature of the warmest month, i.e. June

°C

Climatic moisture index

A metric of relative wetness and aridity

–

Bio1

WorldClim (https://www.worldclim.org/; Hijmans et al. 2005)

Mean estimates

°C

Bio2

Mean estimates

°C

Bio3

Mean estimates

°C

Bio4

Mean estimates

°C

Bio5

Mean estimates

°C

Bio6

Mean estimates

°C

Bio7

Mean estimates

°C

Bio8

Mean estimates

°C

Bio9

Mean estimates

°C

Bio10

Mean estimates

°C

Bio11

Mean estimates

°C

Bio12

Mean estimates

mm

Bio13

Mean estimates

mm

Bio14

Mean estimates

mm

Bio15

Mean estimates

mm

Bio16

Mean estimates

mm

Bio17

Mean estimates

mm

Bio18

Mean estimates

mm

Bio19

Mean estimates

mm

Group 2: Vegetation

Land cover and vegetation indices

Grasslands

Roy et al. 2016

 

%

Largest patch index

 

Calculated based on the grassland land cover type using the software FRAGSTATS

%

Group 3: Topographic

Elevation

CGIAR-CSI

SRTM elevation data at 90 m resolution

m

Compound topographic index (CTI)

 

Calculated based on the elevation data using the Geomorphometry and Gradient Metrix Toolbox in ArcGIS (Evans and Cushman 2009)

–

Water bodies

Roy et al. 2016

 

%

Distance to rivers

HydroSHEDS database (http://hydrosheds.cr.usgs.gov)

River networks and was used to calculate the distance to river variable

m

Group 4: Disturbance

Human footprint

Last of the Wild, v2 (http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/wildareas/)

Anthropogenic impacts on the environment for the period 1995–2004, Last of the Wild Data Version 2, 2005

%

Distance to roads

DIVA-GIS (diva-gis.org/gdata)

Road networks and was used to calculate the road density variable

m

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Nath, A., Islam, N., Dar, S.A., Sinha, A., Lahkar, B.P., Ghosh, S. (2023). Factors Affecting the Habitat Suitability of Eastern Swamp Deer (Rucervus duvaucelii ranjitsinhi Groves, 1982) in Manas National Park and Implication for Terai Grassland Restoration. In: Dhyani, S., Adhikari, D., Dasgupta, R., Kadaverugu, R. (eds) Ecosystem and Species Habitat Modeling for Conservation and Restoration. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0131-9_15

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