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Diversity and community structure of wild vertebrates in the Sandwip Island of Bangladesh

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Abstract

Islands are one of the fragmented ecosystems that cover an extensive range of microhabitats for diverse wildlife fauna. Biodiversity of this unique ecosystem tends to continuous degradation due to various natural and man-made pressure that primarily necessitates the assessment of the current status of species diversity for taking initiatives to protect the insular fauna. We conducted a survey-based study to assess the vertebrate wildlife diversity in Sandwip Island of Bangladesh in alpha and beta levels including abundance, and distribution pattern. The island harboured a total of 151 species of wildlife, including birds (119 spp.), amphibians (14 spp.), reptiles (13 spp.) and the least abundant mammals (5 spp.). According to the Shannon–Wiener index of the wild vertebrate community, the rural areas contained the highest species diversity (H′ = 3.79), while the Pielou index indicated that the semi-urban areas had relatively higher (0.876) species evenness. Species turnover significantly varied among rural, semi-urban and urban sites (Analysis of Similarity test, R = 0.40, P = 0.0001). Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) plot also revealed different species compositions between major three sites. The dendrogram of cluster analysis produced larger species clusters for grasslands, agricultural lands and homestead microhabitats. Sixty-seven species showed the highest clumped distribution pattern. This baseline data signifies the rich biodiversity of the island and has implications for prioritizing conservation measures to protect the insular fauna of Bangladesh.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all volunteers and local guides for their assistance in the field. This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Bangladesh under a “special allocation program for research”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh

    Mohammad Firoj Jaman, Md. Mahabub Alam, Ashikur Rahman Shome, Arnob Saha, Md. Fazle Rabbe, Md. Abu Sayeed Rana, Md. Abdur Razzaque Sarker & Md. Mizanur Rahman

  2. Ecosystem Management (Herpetology), School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, Australia

    Md. Abdur Razzaque Sarker

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  1. Mohammad Firoj Jaman
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Correspondence to Md. Mahabub Alam.

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Jaman, M.F., Alam, M.M., Shome, A.R. et al. Diversity and community structure of wild vertebrates in the Sandwip Island of Bangladesh. Trop Ecol 64, 224–237 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42965-022-00262-w

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