Dear Label_Name,

Greetings! I hope you are well.

I am writing on behalf of an international publishing house, Science and Education Publishing, USA (http://www.sciepub.com).

Science and Education Publishing (SciEP) is a multidisciplinary open access publisher of Journals covering the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine. All SciEP publications are subject to high-quality peer review, editorial and production processes and are freely available online.

Welcome to the April, 2013 edition of SciEP newsletter, providing monthly summaries of articles on science & education related topics of interest to scientist and professionals. The mission of our journals is to provide an open access forum for publishing new findings on issues pertinent to scientific and academic field. We also invite you to submit original research papers, review articles, short reports, or case studies are considered for publication in our Multidisciplinary Journals.

American Journal of Public Health Research
DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-1-1-3

The Implementation of a Tele-Homecare System with Service Oriented Architecture and HL7 Message Transmission Standard
Ching-Sung Wang

American Journal of Medical and Biological Research
DOI: 10.12691/ajmbr-1-1-2

The Influence of Ethanol on Pyruvate Kinases Activity in Vivo, in Vitro, in Silico
Lelevich Sergey Vladimirovich, Khrustalev Vladislav Victorovich, Barkovsky Eugene Victorovich, Shedogubova Tatyana Aleksandrovna

American Journal of Medical Sciences and Medicine
DOI: 10.12691/ajmsm-1-1-1

Clinical and Histological Features in Wegener Granulomatosis
Li Cavoli Gioacchino, Passantino Rita, Bono Luisa, Tortorici Calogera, Ferrantelli Angelo, Giammarresi Carlo, Rotolo Ugo

American Journal of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
DOI: 10.12691/ajidm-1-1-2

The Curse of Lymphatic Filariasis: Would the Continual Use of Diethylcarbamazine Eliminate this Scourge in Papua New Guinea?
Anne Lanham, Lillian Mwanri

We have released issues of some journals on February 2013.
American Journal of Public Health Research
American Journal of Medical Sciences and Medicine
American Journal of Medical and Biological Research
American Journal of Pharmacological Sciences
American Journal of Clinical Medicine Research
American Journal of Nursing Research
American Journal of Cancer Prevention
American Journal of Medicine Studies
American Journal of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
American Journal of Cardiovascular Disease Research
American Journal of Biomedical Research
American Journal of Mechanical Engineering
American Journal of Microbiological Research
Journal of Preventive Medicine
American Journal of Food and Nutrition
American Journal of Hypertension Research
American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine
Journal of Cancer Research and Treatment
American Journal of Zoological Research
Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology
American Journal of Microbiological Research
Biomedical Science and Engineering

We are pleased to announce that submissions are now being accepted for peer review for all the journals across all our subject areas in SciEP.

Please submit your manuscript via our online submission system:
http://www.sciepub.com/author/signin

To unsubscribe from our mailing list, please click on the following link: unsubscribe

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

David Rain
Email:join@sciepub.com
Science and Education Publishing (http://www.sciepub.com)

Avifaunal Diversity at the Farmlands of CCSHAU, Hisar, Haryana, India

Priya Dahiya*, Dharambir Singh, Vikram Delu, Kiran Yodha

Deparment of Zoology & Aquaculture, COBS&H, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar

Abstract: Avifaunal diversity in a particular area indicates the health and any deviation in the ecosystem functioning. Documentation of avian species, thus, in any area is emphasized from environment monitoring perspective. Keeping this in view an attempt was made to prepare a checklist of bird species inhabiting the farmlands of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar. A total of 99 species representing 80 genera, 44 families and 18 orders were recorded from June 2019 to July 2021 among which 65.65% were residents and the remaining were migratory. Two of the recorded species, Paleornis eupatria and Threskiornis melanocephalus belong to near threatened category, three belongs to Schedule-I of IWPA (1972). Analysis of food and feeding guilds revealed that omnivorous guild is predominant followed by insectivorous. Availability of abundant food resources in agricultural landscapes make them potential habitats and attract diverse avifauna. The outcome of present study has provided sufficient data on the documentation of avian fauna of the study area.

Keywords: avifauna, farmland, migratory, near threatened, omnivorous

Received May 22, 2022; Revised June 25, 2022; Accepted July 04, 2022

Citation: Priya Dahiya, Dharambir Singh, Vikram Delu, Kiran Yodha, Avifaunal Diversity at the Farmlands of CCSHAU, Hisar, Haryana, India. Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 10 (7). 424-431. January 2022. doi:10.12691/aees-10-7-1

1. Introduction

Haryana is predominantly an agrarian society situated in North-Western part of the country and covers an area of 44,212 square kilometers. Birds are omnipresent and serve several ecosystem services like pollination, scavenging, seed dispersal, etc [1]. Bird assemblages are potential bioindicator of stability, integrity and functioning of any ecosystem. The composition of bird species depends on the available resources and climatic conditions of any area; hence assessment of avian community is emphasized to monitor the environment. A few of the bird species however cause considerable damage to agricultural and horticultural crops. Agricultural habitats provide diversified, biologically productive, and concentrated food resources and sometimes serve as stopovers for migratory birds. The food generally includes fruits, grains, green vegetation, insects and their larvae, rodents, seeds, soil invertebrate and vertebrates etc. Birds are classified as carnivorous, frugivorous, granivorous, insectivorous, nectarivorous and omnivorous based on their feeding habits, but omnivorous and granivorous are most abundant among them. Carnivorous and insectivorous species are farmer’s friend and provides beneficial services to agriculture by consuming crop pests like insects, rodents, etc [2]. Along with food resources, cover, roosting, nesting and breeding ground are also provided by agro ecosystems to birds, so it becomes imperative to point out that several workers have studied avian communities in India from different point of views in landscapes [3,4,5,6,7]. As far as Haryana is concerned, [8,9,10,11] have contributed a lot to the avian ecological studies. Intensive agricultural practices, indiscriminate use of pesticides and other agro chemicals pose a great threat to avian diversity.

Present study assessed the avian diversity and their community characteristics through surveys from July 2019 to June 2021 at the research farm area of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. Several crop fields, horticultural area, vegetable section and wetland area of the university were selected for observations on avian diversity. The data gathered during the investigation may help to design the strategy to minimize the crop loss and conservation plans of for birds of agricultural importance.

2. Study Area

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University is located at 29°08'59.1"N 75°42'16.8"E in district Hisar of Haryana, India. The climate of the area is subtropical to arid with cold winters and very hot summers with an average annual temperature between 23-26°C and scanty rainfall. The farmland of the university has huge green cover of different plant species, seasonal agricultural, horticultural and vegetable crops throughout the year.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Field Survey

A preliminary survey to get acquainted with topography of the study area was carried out; thereafter 44 field surveys were conducted fortnightly from July 2019 to June 2021. Different study sites were visited during morning and evening hours at least for three hours after sun rise and before sun set respectively but inclement weather days were avoided. Observations on birds were taken by following line transects method [12,13] and total sixteen transects (500 meter each) were carved out of whole study area. Each transect was scanned thoroughly on foot to note down the presence of any bird species spotted within 100 meter radius on both the sides of the transects. Birding was done with the help of binoculars (Nikon ACULON binoculars; 8×42, 8°) to pin down the unique morphological features crucial for identification thereafter photographs were clicked with digital camera (COOLPIX P900) for record and assistance in identification of the correct species. The birds observed in fields were identified using reference books like [14,15,16,17] and other authenticated online databases (IUCN Red list of Threatened Species and Oriental Bird Club image database). Recorded and identified avifauna wasclassified based on common name, zoological name, genus, family and order [18]. Residential and local abundance status were assigned to the identified species based on presence or absence [19,20] and frequency of sighting methods [21]. To determine the local abundance of residential species all 44 visits were taken in consideration whereas 24 and 20 visits during the months from October to March and April to September for winter and summer migratory species respectively. The species sighted during 76-100% visits were classified as abundant, very common if sighted in 51-75%, common if sighted in 26-50% whereas rare species if sighted in 1-25% visits. Conservation status and population trend of the recorded avifauna were assessed as per [22,23,24]. Feeding guilds were decided as work of [25,26] and field observations.

3.2. Data Analysis

The recorded data were analysed for calculating relative diversity (RDi) of the orders and families by following formula [27]

4. Results and Discussion

The total 99 avian species recorded at farmlands of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar Haryana were classified in to 80 genera, 44 families and 18 orders. Among the recorded bird species, maximum number belongs to order Passeriformes (51 species of 19 families) of followed by Pelecaniformes (six species of two families); Anseriformes and Cuculiformes (each with five species of two families); Coraciiformes (four species of three families); Columbiformes (four species of one family); Charadriiformes (three species of three families); Piciformes (three species of two families); Accipitriformes, Galliformes, Gruiformes and Psittaciformes (each with three species of one family); Bucerotiformes, Falconiformes, Podicipediformes, Strigiformes, Suliformes and Upupiformes (each with one species of one family) (Table 1). Our findings related to bird diversity match with the observation of [28], these researchers concluded that passerine birds represent maximum diversity in an area due to their wide range of habitats, feeding habits such as floral buds, fruits, grains, insects, other invertebrates, nectar, nuts, etc. Similarly, [29] recorded maximum bird species belonging to order Passeriformes in the agricultural landscapes of Burdwan. Observations for avifaunal diversity in agro ecosystem were also taken by [30] in six different agro ecosystems of Uttrakhand and recorded 64 bird species belonging to 34 families.

Table 1. Avian species spotted at farmlands of CCSHAU, HISAR from July 2019 to June 2021

The relative diversity (RDi) values of families revealed Muscicapidae (highest RDi= 11.11) as the most diverse family with 11 species (Table 1). Out of total 99 species; 65.65% were found resident, 21.21% winter migrants, 6.06% summer migrants, 5.05% local migrants and 2.02% passage migrants (Figure 1). Some of the migratory species spotted included Red Headed Bunting and Rosy Starling (passage migrants); African Comb Duck, Common Nightingale and Plum Headed Parakeet (local migrants); Blue Tailed Bee Eater, Grey Bellied Cuckoo, Indian Golden Oriole, Pied Cuckoo and Lesser Whistling Duck (summer migrants); Black Redstart, Bluethroat, Citrine Wagtail, Common Coot, Common Pochard, Grey Wagtail, Red Breasted Flycatcher, Tufted Pochard, White Wagtail and Yellow Wagtail (winter migrants). The observations on the abundance status of current study revealed that out of total 99species; 13, 31, 41, 14 were respectively abundant, very common, common and rare species (Figure 2). Food resources in any ecosystem play a vital role in richness and species diversity of the area. The analysis of recorded data for feeding guild of documented species explains that most dominant guild was omnivorous (38.38%) followed by insectivorous (32.32%); carnivorous (15.15%), granivorous (7.07%), frugivorous (6.06%) and insecti/nectarivorous (1.01%) (Figure 3). Findings of [31] on the residential status, local abundance and foraging guilds of avian species in six different agricultural ecosystems of Telangana are similar to our observations. They recorded that maximum number (98 out of total 144) of species were having residential status and remaining 46 were identified as migratory. The abundance status revealed 30.94% fairly common, 30.22 % rare, 20.14% common and 18.70% very common bird species. The researcher also identified six major feeding guilds, i.e., insectivores (43.0%), omnivores (29.9%), frugivores (5.6%), granivores (11.2%), carnivores (6.5%) and nectarivores (3.7%).

Figure 1. Residential status of birds

Figure 2. Local abundance status of birds

Figure 3. Different feeding guilds of bird species

Plates 1-12. Avian species recorded in the study area (R- Resident, WM- Winter Migrant, PM- Passage Migrant, SM- Summer Migrant, LM- Local Migrant, LC- Least Concern, NT- Near Threatened)

Out of 99 species of present study; 80 preferred terrestrial, 11aquatic and 8 preferred both the aquatic as well as terrestrial habitats (Figure 4). Similarly [32] recorded habitats of bird species and found 125, 63, 67 and 19 species in agricultural, residential, aquatic and barren habitats respectively. Conservation status of recorded avifauna was also taken into consideration during present investigation and results revealed that 97 species are least concern and 2 (Alexandrine Parakeet, Paleorniseupatriaand Black-Headed Ibis, Threskiornismelanocephalus) near threatened as per IUCN Red List criteria (Figure 5).

Figure 4. Habitat wise distribution of bird species

Figure 5. IUCN conservation status of birds

Three species Black Kite (Milvus migrans), Black-winged Kite (Elanus caeruleus) and Shikra (Accipiter badius) were found mentioned under Schedule-I while the remaining 96 under Schedule-IV of Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972). Out of the total reported, six species fall under Appendix-II of CITES (2012). The existence of near threatened and vulnerable species in aforesaid habitats emphasizes the importance of conservation for these species [33].

Out of the recorded species, 50.51%, 20.20%, 18.18% and 11.11% exhibit stable, increasing, decreasing and unknown global IUCN population trends respectively (Figure 6). Similar to findings of current study, [34] also recorded a total of 43 avian species in agricultural landscapes of Bortir Bir, West Bengal among which global population trend of 10 species was decreasing, 9 had increasing, 13 with stable and 11 had unknown status.

Figure 6. Global population trend of birds

5. Conclusion

The present study reveals that farmland of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University is the home to 99 species belonging to 80 genera, 44 families and 18 orders. The data recorded from different sites can be instrumental for future assessments on the status of birds and their conservation in the agro ecosystems.

Acknowledgements

The authors extend their sincere thanks to the Department of Zoology & Aquaculture, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, hisar. We are also thankful to CSIR for financial assistance.

References

[1]   | Whelan C.J., Wenny D.G. and Marquis R.J, “Ecosystem services provided by birds”, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1134. 25-60. 2008.
[2]   | Narayana B.L., Pandiyan J. and Rao, V.V, “Studies on avian diversity in selected croplands of Nalgonda District, Andhra Pradesh, Southern India”. Status of Indian Birds and Their Conservation, 2011.
[3]   | Dewar D, “Local bird migration in India”, Journal Bombay Natural History Society, 18(2). 343-356. 1908.
[4]   | Donald C, “Bird migration across the Himalayas”, Journal Bombay Natural History Society, 51(1). 269-271. 1952.
[5]   | Sugathan R, “Some interesting aspects of the Avifauna of the Point Calimere Sanctuary Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu”, Journal Bombay Natural History Society, 79. 567-575. 1982.
[6]   | Vijayan V.S, “On Conserving the bird found of India”, Wetlands, in Proceedings ofIndian Academy of Science. 1986.
[7]   | Wadatkar J.S. and Kasambe R, “Checklist of birds from Pohara-Malkhed Reserve Forest, District Amravati, Maharashtra”, Zoos’ Print Journal, 17(6). 807-811. 2002.
[8]   | Gupta R.C. and Bajaj M. “Preliminary observation on a rare lapwing species, white-tailed, (Vanellusleucurus) (Lichtenstein)”. Journal of Nature Conservation, 12(2). 197-203. 2000.
[9]   | Gupta R.C. and Kumar S, “Determination of avian bio diversity in Morni hills in district Panchkula, Haryana”. Journal of Advanced Zoology, 30(1). 44-53. 2009.
[10]   | Gupta, R. C., ParasherM. and Kaushik T.K, “An Enquiry into the Avian Biodiversity of Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary in Jhajjar District in Haryana State in India”, Journal of Experimental Zoology, India, 14(2). 457-465. 2011.
[11]   | Rai D., Gulia R., Chopra G. and Kumar P, “Avifaunal Community Composition and Current Status in Basai Wetlands: An important bird Area in Haryana, India”. Indian Forester, 145(10). 971-985. 2019.
[12]   | Bibby C.J., Burgess N.D., Hill D.A., Mustoe S.H, Bird census techniques, Academic Press, 2000.
[13]   | Buckland S.T., Anderson D.R., Burnham K.P. and Laake J.L, Distance Sampling: Estimating Abundance of Biological Populations, Chapman and Hall, London, 1993.
[14]   | Ali S, The Book of Indian Birds, 13th Ed., Bombay Natural History Society, Oxford University Press Inc. Bombay, 2002.
[15]   | Grimmett R., Inskipp C. and Inskipp T, Birds of Indian Subcontinent, 2nd Ed, Oxford University Press, India, 2015.
[16]   | Grimmett R. and Inskipp T, Birds of Northern India, Christopher Helm London, 2019.
[17]   | Kalsi R.S., Sharma S.C. and Choudhary J.R, Birds of Haryana- A Field Guide. Unique Publications, Haryana, India, 2019.
[18]   | Praveen J., Jayapal R., Inskipp T., Warakagoda D., Thompson P.M., Anderson R.C. and Pittie A, Checklist of the birds of the Indian subcontinent (v3.0) 2019. http://www.indianbirds.in/indian-subcontinent.
[19]   | Grimmett, R., &Inskipp, T. (2003). Birds of Northern India. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
[20]   | Kumar P., Rai D. and Gupta S.K, “Wetland bird assemblage in rural ponds of Kurukshetra, India”, Water-birds, 39(1). 86-98. 2016.
[21]   | Kumar P. and Gupta, S.K, “Diversity and Abundance of Wetland Birds around Kurukshetra, India”, Our Nature, 7. 212-217. 2009.
[22]   | CITES (Checklist of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora), Geneva, Switzerland. 2012. http://www.cites.org.
[23]   | IUCN (International Union of Conservation and Nature) Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-3. 2021. http://www.iucnre dlist.org
[24]   | IWPA (Indian Wildlife Protection Act) 1972., https://www.wiienvis.nic.in/Database/Schedul eSpeciesDatabase_7969.aspx (updated on 28/4/ 2014).
[25]   | Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C. &Inskipp, T. (1999). Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. Oxford Uni-versity Press, New Delhi, India, 384 pp.
[26]   | Singh J., Antil S., Goyal V. and Malik V, “Avifaunal diversity of Tilyar Lake, Rohtak, Haryana, India”, Journal of Threatened Taxa, 12(8). 15909-15915. 2020.
[27]   | La Torre-Cuadros M.A., Herrando-Perez S. and Young, K.R, “Diversity and structure patterns for tropical montane and premontane forests of central Peru, with an assessment of the use of higher-taxon surrogacy”, Biodiversity and Conservation, 16. 2965-2988. 2007.
[28]   | Beresford P., Barker F.K., Ryan P.G. and Crowe, T.M, “African endemics span the tree of songbirds (Passeriformes): molecular systematic of several evolutionary “enigmas” in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272. 849-858. 2005.
[29]   | Hossain A. and Aditya G, “Avian Diversity in Agricultural Landscape: Records from Burdwan, West Bengal, India”, in Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 2014.
[30]   | Singh V., Bisht S.S., Rajwar N. and Miglani R, “Avian diversity and its ecological impact on agro-ecosystems as biological pest control agents near Sharda River bank, Uttarakhand, India”, Journal of Entomological Research, 43(4) . 547-554. 2019.
[31]   | Narayana B.B., Rao V.L. and Pandiyan J, “Avifaunal diversity in different croplands of Nalgonda District, Telangana, Southern India”, International Journal of Current Research, 7(7). 17677-17682. 2015.
[32]   | Kler T.K. and Kumar M,“Avian Fauna in Agricultural Habitats of Punjab State and Manoj”, Agricultural Research, 52(3). 83-90. 2015.
[33]   | Joshi K.K., Bhatt D. and Arya A.K, “Avian diversity in forest, agriculture and water stream habitats of Dehradun Valley, Uttarakhand, India”, Biodiversity Data Journal, 9. 2021.
[34]   | Debnath R. and Pal S, “Present Status of Avifauna in the Agricultural Landscapes of BortirBil, West Bengal, India”, World Scientific News, 166. 88-99. 2022.