Avian Diversity and Abundance of Taunsa Barrage Ramsar Site in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The study of avian species diversity and abundance at the Taunsa Barrage Ramsar site was carried out from September 2019 to March 2020. Taunsa Barrage is an important wetland for international and local migratory birds, including waterfowls, waders, and long-distance migrant avifauna. Data were collected by direct counts made on four-point transects representing a disturbance gradient due to humans and different habitats. Species diversity indices, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and other statistical methods were used to analyze data. A total of 150 avian species of 19 orders and 53 families were recorded. These included 66 migrant species and 84 resident species. The spotting of ten globally threatened species also highlights the importance of wetland for avian species. On average, $1511\pm 373$ ( $\text{mean}\pm \text{SD}$ ) species of birds were recorded every month. Shannon’s diversity index indicated that Transect Point 2 had higher species diversity ( $H^{\prime }=3.779$ ), followed by Transect Points 3, 4, and 1 ( $H^{\prime }=3.769$ , $H^{\prime }=3.491$ , and $H^{\prime }=3.457$ , respectively). Evenness index showed that birds evenly distributed in September ( $E=0.5584$ ) than November ( $E=0.310$ 9). ANOVA showed a significant difference ( $F=4.800$ , $\text{df}=3$ , $P=0.002$ ) of avian diversity and abundance among the transect points. But there was no statistically significant interaction between months ( $F=1.23$ , $\text{df}=6$ , $P=0.233$ ). The results showed that the Taunsa Barrage Ramsar site harbors plenty of resident migratory and threatened bird species. Hence, it is important to protect its habitat and need to protect avian diversity by overcoming major threats.