Influence of Crop Heterogeneity on Avian Diversity and Trait Composition in Urban Agro-Ecosystems

Environmental heterogeneity has a significant role in configuring native species diversity. Studies have shown that agricultural crops impact bird diversity in urban and peri-urban areas. This paper has examined how crop heterogeneity influences avian diversity and its trait composition in India's tropical urban and peri-urban agricultural landscape. Eighty sampling points have been selected in four sampling sites (20 × 4) of Bhubaneswar, India, where large agricultural patches are available. Different diversity indices of each site and Relative Diversity Indices (RDI) of all families were computed. A regression analysis was performed to assess whether crop richness affected native bird abundance and richness. The result shows that 11,259 individuals of 135 bird species belonging to 18 orders, 52 families and 42 genera were recorded in 4 sampling sites. The order of population at study sites is OUAT (3382 individuals, 104 species) > Daruthenga (2838 individuals, 95 species) > Kalyanapur (2585 individuals, 75 species) > Sundarpada (2454 individuals, 69 species). The regression analysis showed the crop richness positively influenced avian diversity. This study supports the theory of multi-crop farming lands supporting higher species richness and abundance. Here it is concluded that heterogeneous crop lands have higher species holding capacity than single-crop agricultural lands. Therefore, conserving multi-crop urban agroecosystems will help save urban avian diversity.