SPECIES DIVERSITY, RELATIVE ABUNDANCE AND HABITATASSOCIATION OF AVIFAUNA IN SELECTED CHURCH FORESTS, TAKUSSA WOREDA, NORTH-WESTERN ETHIOPIA

Mehariw, Eristu

dc.contributor.author	Mehariw, Eristu
dc.date.accessioned	2018-11-01T03:35:55Z
dc.date.available	2018-11-01T03:35:55Z
dc.date.issued	2018-11-01
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9056
dc.description.abstract	The study about species diversity, relative abundance and habitat association of avifauna in selected church forests of Takussa Woreda, North Gonder Zone of Amhara National Regional State was carried out from January to August 2018. Dry season data were collected from January to March, but for wet season June to August. The objectives of this study were to determine the species diversity, relative abundance and habitat association of avifauna in the study area. Point count method was applied for data collection. Twenty one sampling point stations were selected by stratified sampling technique based on the proportion of the area of the selected church forests. Data were collected for three consecutive days per week for eight weeks in dry and wet seasons. Observation on birds was taken twice a day (morning and afternoon) for a total of six hours in a day. Diversity, relative abundance and community similarity of birds were determined using the Shannon–Weiner diversity index, Simpson’s index of diversity, and Sorenson’s coefficient similarity index, respectively. Twoway ANOVA was used to test the effect of seasonal and habitat variation on the diversity of avian species between the three selected church forest. A total of 71 bird species were recorded, of which five were endemic to Ethiopia, and nine were shared with Eritrea. The mean bird species diversity was highest in Goye Merry Church forest (H'=3.5), and the lowest was in Arema Gebrael Church forest (H'=2.9). The effect of seasonal variation was statistically insignificant (F 1, 295 =1.416, P=0.235), where as habitat variation was statistically significant difference (F 2, 295 =840.53, P=0.000) on diversity of birds. The bird species evenness was high in Goye Merry Church forest (0.83), and low in Arema Gebrael Church forest (0.72). The birds community similarity of the three selected church forests in both the dry and wet seasons were very high (CC= 0.865). Relative abundance score of frequent bird species was high both during the dry and wet seasons. Habitat association of birds among the vegetation strata showed the highest species similarity was occurred between forest interior and forest edge (CC=0.75), followed by forest interior and shrub (CC=0.72), and the least was between forest edge and shrub (CC=0.62). The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) forests are very important in the conservation of avian diversity in particular, and the whole biodiversity in general. This indicates giving greater attention to the EOTC forests and minimizing the anthropogenic disturbances around the church forests is very important to ensure sustainable conservation biodiversity resource in the country. Keywords/phrases: Abundance, birds, church forests, diversity, habitat association, relative abundance, species richness,	en_US
dc.language.iso	en	en_US
dc.subject	Biology	en_US
dc.title	SPECIES DIVERSITY, RELATIVE ABUNDANCE AND HABITATASSOCIATION OF AVIFAUNA IN SELECTED CHURCH FORESTS, TAKUSSA WOREDA, NORTH-WESTERN ETHIOPIA	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US