Socio-Ecological Perspectives of Avifauna Conservation in the Indawgyi Wetland Ecosystem, Myanmar
Doctoral thesis
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3130275Utgivelsesdato
2024Metadata
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- Institutt for biologi [2612]
Sammendrag
Wetlands are the most productive ecosystems in the world and play a crucial role in avian conservation. However, wetland ecosystems are closely associated with anthropogenic landscapes and their avifauna are affected by various human impacts. Habitat loss from land use changes, mainly agriculture is by far the biggest threat. Understanding the ecological importance of natural wetlands, as well as the conservation potential and impact of associated agricultural lands are thus central to the conservation of wetland-dependent birds and their habitat management. This thesis aims to fill the gap by examining 1) differences in bird community diversity and assembly structures among different habitat types constituted in the wetland (i.e., open water habitats, seasonally flooded grasslands, riparian forests, and agricultural land), 2) bird and agriculture interactions and its implications on farmers’ attitudes, and 3) behavior towards bird conservation (i.e. illegal bird killing), and 4) the areas that need prioritized conservation management.
Spatio-temporal variation in bird community diversity (Paper I) showed that taxonomic diversity of forest, grassland and open water habitats was higher during the crop harvest seasons (that overlap with migration season), whereas taxonomic diversity of agricultural land was higher during the growing season (which overlaps with breeding season). Although forest, grassland, and open water habitats maintained higher functional and phylogenetic diversity, agricultural habitat reduced functional and phylogenetic diversity. The community assembly in open water habitat was driven by biotic interaction, whereas, in other habitats, it was influenced by environmental filtering. Paper II and III examined the impacts of avian conservation on agricultural production and how it linked with farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward conservation and management of birds. More than 80% of farmers reported crop yield reduction due to avian crop exploitation. A total of 20 species and 6 genera were identified to have caused agricultural yield loss and species exploitation of the crop was higher in farms close to water and especially during the harvest season. Rice was the most affected crop and proportion of affected area ranged from <1% to 75% of the farms. Farmers who experienced crop yield reduction were more likely to ask for various mitigation measures. Additionally, they were more supportive with control management of the crop-exploiting species and thus were more involved in illegal killing of birds. Therefore, Paper IV assessed the spatial-temporal distribution of crop-exploiting species to understand how to prioritize conservation management to achieve sustainable socio-ecological benefits. The overall pattern of all crop-exploiting species indicated that, these species preferred open wetland habitat across all seasons. But they equally used agricultural land and grassland during the growing season and harvest season. Species-specific distribution patterns revealed that species use of agricultural fields was much higher in habitat generalists than wetland specialists. This thesis contributes to the current knowledge about interactions between birds, people, and agriculture, especially in Southeast Asia where rice agriculture is dominant, but the research has been limited, and findings from this thesis will be helpful to improve bird conservation and habitat management in wetlands.