Influence of water physico‐chemical parameters on the spatio‐temporal activity variations of west African waterbirds (fam. Ardeidae)

Abstract

Variations in physico‐chemical parameters of water as abiotic factors affect the spatio‐temporal distributions of the organisms that live in it. The present study aims to determine the influence of physico‐chemical properties on Ardeidae spatio‐temporal variations in the wetland of Ramsar site 1018 in Benin. To reach this goal, transect enumeration techniques and stationary counts lasting 15–30 min were used to count Ardeidae species once a month at different sites such as Nokoué Lake, Sô River, Porto‐Novo Lagoon, Ouémé River and ancient Lagoons from January 2015 to December 2016. Water physico‐chemical parameters were measured at three stations per site during the bird counts. Five of the 12 species recorded monthly were significantly influenced (p < 0.05) by water physico‐chemical parameters. It was then revealed that pH influenced Ardeidae spatial variation. Such information is relevant to the management of Ramsar Site 1018, which hosts migratory waterbird species from Palearctic (Eurasia) every year.