PhD Theses (SACON)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.168.202.180:4000/handle/123456789/138
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Item Bird community structure along the altitudinal gradient in Silent Valley National Park, Western Ghats, India(SACON, 2008) Anoop Das, K.S.; Vijayan, LalithaMy research on bird community along the altitudinal-habitat gradients and their nest-site partitioning across habitats in Silent Valley National Park (SYNP) has portrayed several patterns. The work has explored some aspects of the processes which accounted for the patterns of variations in the community structure of birds in a pristine forest representative of the post Miocene and Pleistocene uplifted Western Ghats of India. In particular, the study addressed how altitude affected the distribution of birds and how the breeding birds shared their resources. The present study resulted in 5253 birds of 108 species, including 14 endemic species, from the 2314 point counts conducted in six habitats. The total number of species observed was 145 including opportunistic observations. Bird community structure of various habitats in corresponding altitudes varied significantly in terms of composition, abundance and diversity. The maximum species (59.2%) and individuals (27.2%) were in evergreen forest habitat and minimum in BLHF (22.8 % and 5.73% respectively). Shola habitats located at higher altitudes in the study area possessed higher species richness than mid-elevation broad leaved hill forest, which occurs within the altitudinal range of 1500- 1700 m. BLHF could be considered as a transitional zone between evergreen and shola forest. The significant difference in tree species richness of BLHF with adjacent EG and SHOLA habitats partly explain the reduction in number of bird species in this transitional zone.