Distribution pattern of reptiles along an eastern Himalayan elevation gradient, India

Chettri, Basundhara; Bhupathy, S.; Acharya, Bhoj Kumar

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2009.09.004

Cited by 69 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Previous studies in this region have focused on plants (Grytnes & Vetaas, 2002; Bhattarai & Vetaas, 2003; Oommen & Shanker, 2005; Bhattarai & Vetaas, 2006; Acharya, Vetaas & Birks, 2011) and reptiles (Chettri, Bhupathy & Acharya, 2010), revealing a predominant unimodal pattern. For the elevational pattern of birds, one study from the Nepal Himalayas found that species richness decreased with increasing elevation (Hunter & Yonzon, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elevational pattern of bird species richness and its causes along a central Himalaya gradient, China

Pan

Ding²,

et al. 2016

PeerJ

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This study examines the relative importance of six variables: area, the mid-domain effect, temperature, precipitation, productivity, and habitat heterogeneity on elevational patterns of species richness for breeding birds along a central Himalaya gradient in the Gyirong Valley, the longest of five canyons in the Mount Qomolangma National Nature Reserve. We conducted field surveys in each of twelve elevational bands of 300 m between 1,800 and 5,400 m asl four times throughout the entire wet season. A total of 169 breeding bird species were recorded and most of the species (74%) were small-ranged. The species richness patterns of overall, large-ranged and small-ranged birds were all hump-shaped, but with peaks at different elevations. Large-ranged species and small-ranged species contributed equally to the overall richness pattern.Based on the bivariate and multiple regression analyses, area and precipitation were not crucial factors in determining the species richness along this gradient. The mid-domain effect played an important role in shaping the richness pattern of large-ranged species. Temperature was negatively correlated with overall and large-ranged species but positively correlated with small-ranged species. Productivity was a strong explanatory factor among all the bird groups, and habitat heterogeneity played an important role in shaping the elevational richness patterns of overall and small-ranged species. Our results highlight the need to conserve primary forest and intact habitat in this area. Furthermore, we need to increase conservation efforts in this montane biodiversity hotspot in light of increasing anthropogenic activities and land use pressure.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elevational pattern of bird species richness and its causes along a central Himalaya gradient, China

Pan

Ding²,

et al. 2016

PeerJ

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“…In the Himalaya of Nepal and adjoining countries, the species richness along the elevation gradients have shown the mid-elevation peaks for vascular plant species (Vetaas and Grytnes, 2002;Bhattarai and Vetaas, 2003), ferns (Bhattarai et al, 2004), bryophytes (Grau et al, 2007), lichens (Baniya et al, 2010) and reptiles (Chettri et al, 2010 (Bhattarai et al, 2004). In contrast, the topographical variables such as slope angle, aspect or regional differences were rarely analyzed in the Himalayan region (Paudel and Vetaas, 2014).The same hold for microclimates such as point temperature and water availability which might affect upon the species distribution (Geiger et al,1995).…”

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confidence: 97%

“…In the Himalaya of Nepal and adjoining countries, the species richness along the elevation gradients have shown the mid-elevation peaks for vascular plant species (Vetaas and Grytnes, 2002;Bhattarai and Vetaas, 2003), ferns (Bhattarai et al, 2004), bryophytes (Grau et al, 2007), lichens (Baniya et al, 2010) and reptiles (Chettri et al, 2010). Those studies have often focused on elevation pattern in the species richness taken as proxies of changes in temperature, energy and water availability (Bhattarai et al, 2004).…”

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“…However, both latitude and elevation alone cannot elucidate all the causal biological factors, instead they are proxy for numerous variables such as temperature, moisture energy and so on that change along the elevation (Körner, 2007), topography (Hofer et al, 2008) and latitude (Carpenter, 2005). Land use and geographic factors such as aspect and slope also play important roles in distribution of species in any area (Sanders and Rahbek, 2012).In the Himalaya of Nepal and adjoining countries, the species richness along the elevation gradients have shown the mid-elevation peaks for vascular plant species (Vetaas and Grytnes, 2002;Bhattarai and Vetaas, 2003), ferns (Bhattarai et al, 2004), bryophytes (Grau et al, 2007), lichens (Baniya et al, 2010) and reptiles (Chettri et al, 2010 (Bhattarai et al, 2004). In contrast, the topographical variables such as slope angle, aspect or regional differences were rarely analyzed in the Himalayan region (Paudel and Vetaas, 2014).The same hold for microclimates such as point temperature and water availability which might affect upon the species distribution (Geiger et al,1995).…”

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Effects of the environment on species richness and composition of vascular plants in Manaslu Conservation Area and Sagarmatha region of Nepalese Himalaya

K.¹,

Sharma

Shrestha

et al. 2016

Banko

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This study analyzed how the environmental conditions constrained the species richness and composition in the four river valleys of Central Nepal i.e. two from Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA) and two from Sagarmatha region. Topographical, bioclimatic and measured variables were used to analyze their effects on the vascular plant diversity along elevation and land use gradients. Altogether, 148 plots were established at five elevation levels between 2,200 m and 3,800 m above the mean sea level. Four land use types namely crop field, meadow, exploited forest and natural forest were sampled at each elevation level. Altogether, 790 species of vascular plants belonging to 114 families were recorded; Asteraceae had the highest number of species (84) followed by Rosaceae (52) and Poaceae (50). Explorative data analysis of species composition by canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that the topographical variables explained the composition better than both the bioclimatic set of variables and the logger data. However, all groups of variables revealed significant effects on species composition. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) also revealed significant effects of elevation, land-use types, slope angle, aspect, temperature and precipitation on species richness. Species diversity patterns are governed by a varied set of biotic and abiotic factors. Keeping biotic interactions at one end, the abiotic environmental drivers of species distribution has gained much attention in recent studies (Guisan and Zimmermann, 2000). There are several environmental relationships that can be used to describe patterns of species distributions as well as species richness. Changes of species distributions along the latitudinal and elevation gradients are well known since the advent of modern biogeography (Lomolino, 2001;Colwell et al., 2004). The effect of latitude on species richness has been known for a long time (Pianka, 1966;Stevens, 1989). Stevens (1989) has compiled the published literatures showing the effect of latitudinal gradients in the species richness at regional as well as local scales. Species richness and their distribution are also affected by the elevation gradients (Stevens, 1992;McCain and Grytnes, 2010), for example, in mammals (McCain, 2007), birds (Island, 2012) and vascular plants (Trigas et al., 2013). However, both latitude and elevation alone cannot elucidate all the causal biological factors, instead they are proxy for numerous variables such as temperature, moisture energy and so on that change along the elevation (Körner, 2007), topography (Hofer et al., 2008) and latitude (Carpenter, 2005). Land use and geographic factors such as aspect and slope also play important roles in distribution of species in any area (Sanders and Rahbek, 2012).In the Himalaya of Nepal and adjoining countries, the species richness along the elevation gradients have shown the mid-elevation peaks for vascular plant species (Vetaas and Grytnes, 2002;Bhattarai and Vetaas, 2003), ferns (Bhattarai et al., 2004), bryophytes (Grau et ...

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“…More species at lower region in this study agrees with patterns reported for a wide range of taxonomic groups, such as small mammals (Heaney 2001) and tree frogs (Smith et al 2007). Chettri et al (2010), for instance, noticed a seven-fold decline in reptile species richness along an elevation gradient in the eastern Himalaya.…”

Section: T R a C H Fi S C H Fi Um S P mentioning

confidence: 99%

Species diversity and spatial distribution of snakes in Jigme Dorji National Park and adjoining areas, western Bhutan

Koirala

Gurung

Lhendup³

et al. 2016

J. Threat. Taxa

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Distribution pattern of reptiles along an eastern Himalayan elevation gradient, India

Cited by 69 publications

References 49 publications

Elevational pattern of bird species richness and its causes along a central Himalaya gradient, China

Elevational pattern of bird species richness and its causes along a central Himalaya gradient, China

Effects of the environment on species richness and composition of vascular plants in Manaslu Conservation Area and Sagarmatha region of Nepalese Himalaya

Species diversity and spatial distribution of snakes in Jigme Dorji National Park and adjoining areas, western Bhutan

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