Version 1
: Received: 7 July 2023 / Approved: 13 July 2023 / Online: 13 July 2023 (07:11:21 CEST)
How to cite:
Thanabalasingam, K.; Poornima, W.; Nimalka, S. A Preliminary Survey of the Avifaunal Diversity in Pampaimadu Premise of the University of Vavuniya, Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. Preprints2023, 2023070712. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.0712.v1
Thanabalasingam, K.; Poornima, W.; Nimalka, S. A Preliminary Survey of the Avifaunal Diversity in Pampaimadu Premise of the University of Vavuniya, Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. Preprints 2023, 2023070712. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.0712.v1
Thanabalasingam, K.; Poornima, W.; Nimalka, S. A Preliminary Survey of the Avifaunal Diversity in Pampaimadu Premise of the University of Vavuniya, Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. Preprints2023, 2023070712. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.0712.v1
APA Style
Thanabalasingam, K., Poornima, W., & Nimalka, S. (2023). A Preliminary Survey of the Avifaunal Diversity in Pampaimadu Premise of the University of Vavuniya, Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.0712.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Thanabalasingam, K., Wijerathna Poornima and Sanjeewani Nimalka. 2023 "A Preliminary Survey of the Avifaunal Diversity in Pampaimadu Premise of the University of Vavuniya, Vavuniya, Sri Lanka" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.0712.v1
Abstract
Vavuniya District is located in the lowland dry zone district of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, which is still unexplored with a natural forest cover of 1,238 km2. Literature relates to the avifaunal birds is still a gap in the Vavuniya, as there are already studies about the diversity of water avifaunal species. In addition to that, the habitat diversity within the study area was discussed using a prepared checklist and the community indices like the Shannon-Weiner index (H’), Simpson’s diversity index (D), Simpson’s evenness (E), and Species richness (R) across various habitat ecosystems: Woodland-Paddy land (H1); Woodland-Water catchment area (H2); Forest (H3); Grassland with inundated land ecosystem (H4); and Manage garden with Occasional trees (H5); of the Pampaimadu premise, University of Vavuniya. The study area is located 10 km from the center of Vavuniya along the A30 highway, with the dry-mixed evergreen forest as vegetation. The checklist resulted in the observation of 93 avifaunal species belonging to 47 families (including 9 endemics, and 5 nationally threatened species). Family Columbidae (Rock Pigeon: Columba livia (n=123)) is found (68%) to be observed with the highest frequency and evenly distributed across different habitats but the family Ardeidae is found extensively dominating in H5 (39%). H1 is with the highest H` (3.5) and D (0.96); while H3 has the highest R (2.52) and E (0.62). Many anthropogenic disturbances, such as habitat alterations, intentional wildfire, and road mortality are the key threats encountered by the avifaunal species in the study area.
Keywords
avifauna; checklist; habitat variation; species diversity; Vavuniya
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
