Assessment of Avifaunal Diversity in a Municipal Waste dumping site: A case study from Karadiyana, Sri Lanka
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Date
2020
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Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Waste disposal sites have become factitious feeding sites for some avifauna, especially in
the urban and suburban ecosystems. Tentatively these sites are assumed not only to
provide the organic food sources but also refuge to different prey species such as
invertebrates and small mammals for the avifauna composed of different feeding
requirements. As a consequence of this rich and easy food availability, a significant
number of bird species are assumed to be allured to these dumping grounds. On account
of this phenomenon, a study was designed to ascertain the bird species diversity at
Karadiyana in the Colombo District, of the western province of Sri Lanka to assess the
overall avifaunal diversity and abundance. Two different habitat types viz. Drainage
channel along with terrestrial land habitat and dumping area habitat were studied using
variable plot count method. Two plots were allocated to each of the habitats with equal
intervals between the two stations respectively. Bird species were observed within 50 m
either side were recorded twice per day, 6.30-8.30 h and 15.00- 17.00 h., from January to
May 2019. A total of 2586 individuals belonging to 18 species, 14 families, and 8 orders
were recorded in an area of 10.12 ha. For the Simpson’s index and Shannon diversity
index, 0.86/2.08 and 0.74/1.44 were obtained for the two habitats respectively. The most
dominant bird species recorded were the House Crow (Corvus splendens) and Blackheaded ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) with relative abundances of 34.1% and 28.5%.
The least abundant bird species recorded was Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos).
The abundance of certain bird species is very high and therefore causes overpopulation,
which causes a threat to other avifauna in the area. Therefore, proper management
practices should be implemented on direct and open dumping of waste in urban
ecosystems to control the indirect impacts of the adjacent wildlife communities.
.
Keywords: Karadiyana, Avifauna, Waste dumping, Diversity, Shannon diversity
Description
Keywords
Environmental Science, Ecology, Biodiversity – Sri Lanka, Biology