Ecological influence of habitat structure on the diversity of fauna in Rivers State, Nigeria

• Authors: Sodienye Augustine Abere
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Natural habitats are being degraded on a daily basis due to the increase in population and the need to put them to alternative use. This has cause a downturn in biodiversity. The habitat structure, however, plays a key role in species distribution and diversity, hence, the need for its protection. Animal species diversity has been reported to be dependent on the structure of the habitat. However, information on wildlife species in relation to habitat structure within Bonny Island forest has not been adequately documented. Therefore, wildlife diversity in Bonny Island was assessed. Herein, flora and fauna surveys were carried out on fixed transect lines using point centre quarter and line transect methods, respectively, in both the dry and wet seasons. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Abundance of trees, shrubs, grasses and aquatic plant species in BSS (24, 13, 10 and 8, respectively) were higher than in BIS (8, 10, 10 and 10). Anthropogenic activities: hunting, fishing and other agricultural practices exerted higher pressure of 20.0%, 60.0% and 10.0%, respectively on wildlife resources during the dry rather than the wet seasons (17.5%, 43.8% and 38.70%, respectively). Higher density index of avian, amphibian, reptiles and mammals were recorded in BSS (3.2, 3.3, 4.4 and 2.1, respectively) compared to BIS (0.2, 0.7, 0.5 and 0.6). Moreover, there were more catch values in the dry than in the wet seasons (t=0.935). In addition, a higher diversity index (t=2.18) was recorded in BSS than in BIS. Generally, more species diversity was observed in the BSS block than the BIS and this is attributed to the habitat structure which is more structurally complex and less fragmented.

Keywords

EN

degradation of environment; flora and fauna; habitat; structure of environment

Discipline

• FORESTRY: FORESTRY

• Publisher: Scientific Publishing House „DARWIN”
• Journal: World News of Natural Sciences
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 16
• Pages: 75-85

Contributors

author

Sodienye Augustine Abere

• Department of Forestry and Environment, Faculty of Agriculture, River State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

References

• [1] Bazzaz, F.A. (1975). Plant species diversity in old-field successional ecosystems in southern Illinois. Ecology, 56, 485-488.
• [2] Lawton, J.H. (1983) Plant architecture and the diversity of phytophagous insects. Annual Review of Entomology, 28, 23–39.
• [3] McCoy, E.D. & Bell, S.S. (1991) Habitat structure: the evolution and diversification of a complex topic. Habitat structure: the physical arrangement of objects in space (ed. by S.S. Bell, E.D. McCoy and H.R. Mushinsky), pp. 3–27. Chapman & Hall, London.
• [4] Hauser, A., Attrill, M. J., and Cotton, P. A. (2006). Effects of habitat complexity on the diversity and abundance of macrofauna colonising artificial kelp holdfasts. Marine Ecology Progress Series 325, 93–100. doi:10.3354/MEPS325093
• [5] Bentley, J. M., Catterall, C. P., and Smith, G. C. (2000). Effects of fragmentation of araucarian vine forest on small mammal communities. Conservation Biology 14, 1075–1087. doi:10.1046/J.1523-1739.2000.98531.X
• [6] Noss, R. F. (1990). Indicators for monitoring biodiversity: a hierarchical approach. Conservation Biology 4: 355-364.
• [7] Zumeta D.C., Ellefson P.V. (2000). Conserving the bio¬logical diversity of forests: program and organizational experiences of state governments in the United States. Environmental Management, 26: 393–402.
• [8] Larsson S., Danell K. (2001). Science and the management of boreal forest biodiversity. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 3: 5–9.
• [9] Thomaz, S. M., E. D. Dibble, L. R. Evangelista, J. Higuti, and L. M. Bini (2008). Influence of aquatic macrophyte habitat complexity on invertebrate abundance and richness in tropical lagoons. Freshwater Biology 53:3 58–367
• [10] Mormul, R. P., S. M. Thomaz, A. M. Takeda, and R. D. Behrend. (2011). Structural complexity and distance from source habitat determine invertebrate abundance and diversity. Biotropica 43: 738–745
• [11] St. Pierre, J. I., and K. E. Kovalenko (2014). Effect of habitat complexity attributes on species richness. Ecosphere 5(2): 22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES13-00323.

• Document Type: article