Seasonal variations in the structure of avian community in Zambezi riparian forest

Occurrence
Latest version published by Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona on Sep 10, 2024 Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona
Publication date:
September 10, 2024
License:
CC-BY 4.0

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Description

Among the different biomes in southern Africa, tropical riparian forests appear to be especially rich in terms of biodiversity, but little is known about avian communities occupying these forests. In this paper, bird counts were conducted in May, July/August, and October/ November in 2013 and 2014. The line transect method was used. A transect 16.6 km long was designed along the Zambezi River between S 17.4975 E 24.3478 and S 17.4874 E 24.4475. In total, 146 bird species were recorded. The number of species detected each season varied from 95 to 100. The number of dominant species was consistently low, varying between 2 and 3 depending on the month. However, the cumulative dominance and the dominance index were much higher in the dry season (May-August) than in the wet season (October-November). Two species were dominant each month: Euplectes axillaris and Pycnonotis tricolor. Vidua macroura and Estrilda astrild were dominant only in October, while Streptopelia capicola was dominant only in May. The group of subdominants was much more diverse than dominants and included 13 species. The Shannon diversity index increased between July and November from 3.45 to 4.05 but Simpson’s diversity index did not show any seasonal trend. Pielou’s evenness index was higher in the wet season (0.82-0.88) than in the dry season (0.76-0.79). The proportions of the main feeding guilds were much the same throughout the year, except for November, when the proportion of insectivores markedly increased, while that of granivores decreased. Riparian forest corridors in urbanized environments may be viewed as main instruments for offsetting the negative effects of habitat loss and fragmentation.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 146 records.

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How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Kopij, G., 2024. Seasonal variations in the structure of avian community in Zambezi riparian forest. Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. Dataset/Occurrence:

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The publisher and rights holder of this work is Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 533fdd9b-d1a4-4050-ac1f-cd306d6376a5.  Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Spain.

Keywords

Community ecology; Population density; Riparian forests; Occurrence

Contacts

G. Kopij
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Originator ●
  • Point Of Contact
Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences
Wrocław
PL
Montse Ferrer
  • Publisher
  • Managing Editor AMZ
Arxius de Miscel·lània Zoològica, Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona
  • Ps Picasso s/n
Barcelona
ES

Geographic Coverage

This study was conducted in Zambezi riparian forest located on the right bank of the river between Katima Mulilo and Kalimbeza, Zambezi Region, NE Namibia.

Bounding Coordinates South West [-17.497, 24.348], North East [-17.497, 24.348]

Taxonomic Coverage

No Description available

Phylum Chordata
Class Aves
Order Accipitriformes, Anseriformes, Bucerotiformes, Charadriiformes, Ciconiiformes, Coliiformes, Columbiformes, Coraciiformes, Cuculiformes, Falconiformes, Galliformes, Gruiformes, Musophagiformes, Passeriformes, Piciformes, Podicipediformes, Psittaciformes, Suliformes
Family Accipitridae, Anatidae, Phoeniculidae, Bucerotidae, Bucorvidae, Upupidae, Recurvirostridae, Charadriidae, Laridae, Scolopacidae, Turnicidae, Jacanidae, Ciconiidae, Coliidae, Columbidae, Alcedinidae, Meropidae, Coraciidae, Cuculidae, Falconidae, Phasianidae, Rallidae, Musophagidae, Passeridae, Ploecidae, Hirudinidae, Laniidae, Malaconotidae, Alaudidae, Estrildidae, Paridae, Viduidae, Prionopidae, Zosteropidae, Nectariniidae, Oriolidae, Malaconitidae, Acrocephalidae, Motacillidae, Buphagidae, Sturnidae, Corvidae, Estrildidae, Sturnidae, Platysteridae, Cisticolidae, Pycnonotidae, Dicruridae, Leiothrichidae, Macrosphenidae, Malaconotidae, Cisticolidae, Muscicapidae, Monarchidae, Theskiornithodae, Ardeidae, Picidae, Lybiidae, Indicatoridae, Podicipedidae, Psittacidae, Phalacrocoracidae, Anhingidae

Temporal Coverage

Start Date 2013-07-08

Project Data

Among the various biomes in southern Africa tropical riparian forests are especially rich in terms of biodiversity (Mendelsohn et al., 2009). Most of these forests occur in Zambezi, Limpopo, and Okavango, and a few smaller river valleys. Little is known about avian communities occupying these forests. Their structure has been studied in acacia savanna in Eswatini (Monadjem, 2003, 2005), in acacia savanna along the Vaal River in South Africa (Seymour and Simmons, 2008), and in Tamarix vegetation in Karoo, South Africa (Brooke, 1992). In other parts of the world, species diversity and community structure of birds associated with tropical riparian forests have been studied along the Paraiba do Sul River in Atlantic Forests, Sao Paulo State, Brazil (Laurenco and Toledo, 2019); in Alta Foresta, Mato Grosso, Brazil (Lee and Peres, 2007); gallery forests in Costa Rica (Seaman and Schultze, 2010); rainforest in New Guinea (Koreis et al., 2023); monsoonal forest in Hong Kong (Chan et al., 2008); oil palm – forest mosaic in Malaysia (Azman et al., 2011; Michell et al., 2018); savanna in Australia (Woinarski et al., 2000), and forests in south-western Australia (Palmer and Bennett, 2006). All these studies reported comparatively high bird species diversity and high population densities of some species. The purpose of this study was to determine month-to-month changes in the structure of an avian community in a riparian forest in Namibia, regarding 1) species diversity, 2) dominance structure, and 3) population densities of particular species making up the community.

Title Seasonal variations in the structure of avian community in Zambezi riparian forest
Study Area Description This study was conducted in Zambezi riparian forest located on the right bank of the river between Katima Mulilo and Kalimbeza, Zambezi Region, NE Namibia. This riparian forest is composed of main tree species such as African teak Pterocarpus angolensis, albizias Albizia spp., apple leaves Lonchocarpus nelsii, burkea Burkea africana, combretum Combretum spp., camel-thorn Acacia erioloba, other acacias Acacia spp., jackal berry Diospyros mespiliformis, and mopane Colophospermum, pod mahogany Afzelia quanzensis silver cluster-leaf Terminalia sericea, sausage tree Kigelia africana, Sycomore fig Ficus sycomorus, white bauhinia Bauhinia petersiana, Zambezi teak Baikiaea plurijuga. and silver tree Terminalis spp. There are also some rural places (traditional houses with gardens; small arable plots, and pastures for sheep and cattle). This riparian forest is interlaced with water canals (back waters) with reedbeds, rushes and other water vegetation, and grassy depressions that are flooded almost on an annual basis. The dry season in Katima Mulilo lasts from May to September, and the wet season lasts from October to April. We analysed two types of seasonal variations, month-to-month (May-July/August-October-November) and dry season (May + July/August) versus wet season (October + November). Figure 2 shows the monthly distribution of rainfall in 2013 and 2014. The total rainfall was much the same in both years (423 mm in 2013 vs. 428 mm in 2014 (http://www.weatherandclimate.com/namibia/zambezi/katima-mulilo; http://www.meteona.com/index.php/climate/rainprogress/katima).
Design Description Counts on transects were conducted in May, July/August, October and November in 2013 and 2014. The line transect method, American version (Sutherland, 1996; Bibby et al., 2012) was used to quantify avian assemblages (linear population density expressed as the average number of potentially breeding pairs per 10 km) along the study transect. This transect was 16.6 km long and was designed along the Zambezi River between S 17.4975 E 24.3478 and S 17.4874 E 24.4475 (fig. 1).The transect was divided into six sections. Each section was surveyed in one morning, so that to cover the whole transect, four mornings were required in a given month. Counts were conducted in the mornings by walking slowly from c. 6 a.m. till c. 11 a.m. and recording all seen and heard birds. For resident birds, a breeding pair was a census unit, while for non-resident species, the census unit was an individual.

The personnel involved in the project:

G. Kopij
  • Author

Sampling Methods

Counts on transects were conducted in May, July/August, October and November in 2013 and 2014. The line transect method, American version (Sutherland, 1996; Bibby et al., 2012) was used to quantify avian assemblages (linear population density expressed as the average number of potentially breeding pairs/10 km) along the study transect. This transect was 16.6 km long and was designed along the Zambezi River between S 17.4975 E 24.3478 and S 17.4874 E 24.4475 (fig. 1).The transect was divided into six sections. Each section was surveyed in one morning, so that to cover the whole transect, four mornings were required in a given month. Counts were conducted in the mornings by walking slowly from c. 6 a.m. till c. 11 a.m. and recording all seen and heard birds. For resident birds, a breeding pair was a census unit, while for non-resident species, the census unit was an individual. Dominance is expressed as the percentage of the total number of pairs of a given species in relation to the total number of all pairs of all species recorded. Dominant species: >5%, subdominant: 2-4.99%.

Study Extent This study was conducted in Zambezi riparian forest located on the right bank of the river between Katima Mulilo and Kalimbeza, Zambezi Region, NE Namibia. This riparian forest is composed of main tree species such as African teak Pterocarpus angolensis, albizias Albizia spp., apple leaves Lonchocarpus nelsii, burkea Burkea africana, combretum Combretum spp., camel-thorn Acacia erioloba, other acacias Acacia spp., jackal berry Diospyros mespiliformis, and mopane Colophospermum, pod mahogany Afzelia quanzensis silver cluster-leaf Terminalia sericea, sausage tree Kigelia africana, Sycomore fig Ficus sycomorus, white bauhinia Bauhinia petersiana, Zambezi teak Baikiaea plurijuga. and silver tree Terminalis spp. There are also some rural places (traditional houses with gardens; small arable plots, and pastures for sheep and cattle). This riparian forest is interlaced with water canals (back waters) with reedbeds, rushes and other water vegetation, and grassy depressions that are flooded almost on an annual basis. The dry season in Katima Mulilo lasts from May to September, and the wet season lasts from October to April. We analysed two types of seasonal variations, month-to-month (May-July/August-October-November) and dry season (May + July/August) versus wet season (October + November). Figure 2 shows the monthly distribution of rainfall in 2013 and 2014. The total rainfall was much the same in both years (423 mm in 2013 vs. 428 mm in 2014 (http://www.weatherandclimate.com/namibia/zambezi/katima-mulilo; http://www.meteona.com/index.php/climate/rainprogress/katima).
Quality Control The ch2-test was used to test differences in population densities between 2013/14 and 2015/16 For statistical testing, only those species with at least 10 breeding pairs in all four seasons were taken (expected value > 5). Systematics and nomenclature of bird species follow Hockey et al. (2005).

Method step description:

  1. The following indices were used to characterize the diversity and evenness of the communities: 1) Shannon’s diversity index 2) Simpson’s diversity index 3) Pielou’s evenness index 4) Community dominance index 5) Sörensen’s Coefficient

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Kopij, G., 2024. Seasonal variations in the structure of avian community in Zambezi riparian forest. Arxius de Miscel·lània Zoològica, 22: 67–78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2024.22.0067 ttps://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2024.22.0067

Additional Metadata