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Urban green spaces in Dhaka, Bangladesh, harbour nearly half the country's butterfly diversity

Chowdhury, Shawan ; Shahriar, Shihab A. ; Böhm, Monika ; Jain, Anuj ; Aich, Upama ; Zalucki, Myron P. ; Hesselberg, Thomas ; Morelli, Federico ; Benedetti, Yanina and Persson, Anna S. LU , et al. (2021) In Journal of Urban Ecology 7(1).
Abstract

Cities currently harbour more than half of the world's human population and continued urban expansion replaces natural landscapes and increases habitat fragmentation. The impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity have been extensively studied in some parts of the world, but there is limited information from South Asia, despite the rapid expansion of cities in the region. Here, we present the results of monthly surveys of butterflies in three urban parks in Dhaka city, Bangladesh, over a 3-year period (January 2014 to December 2016). We recorded 45% (137 of the 305 species) of the country's butterfly richness, and 40% of the species detected are listed as nationally threatened. However, butterfly species richness declined rapidly in the... (More)

Cities currently harbour more than half of the world's human population and continued urban expansion replaces natural landscapes and increases habitat fragmentation. The impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity have been extensively studied in some parts of the world, but there is limited information from South Asia, despite the rapid expansion of cities in the region. Here, we present the results of monthly surveys of butterflies in three urban parks in Dhaka city, Bangladesh, over a 3-year period (January 2014 to December 2016). We recorded 45% (137 of the 305 species) of the country's butterfly richness, and 40% of the species detected are listed as nationally threatened. However, butterfly species richness declined rapidly in the three study areas over the 3-year period, and the decline appeared to be more severe among threatened species. We developed linear mixed effect models to assess the relationship between climatic variables and butterfly species richness. Overall, species richness was positively associated with maximum temperature and negatively with mean relative humidity and saturation deficit. Our results demonstrate the importance of urban green spaces for nationally threatened butterflies. With rapidly declining urban green spaces in Dhaka and other South Asian cities, we are likely to lose refuges for threatened fauna. There is an urgent need to understand urban biodiversity dynamics in the region, and for proactive management of urban green spaces to protect butterflies in South Asia.

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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
environmental predictor, South Asia, species richness, threatened butterflies, urban ecology
in
Journal of Urban Ecology
volume
7
issue
1
article number
juab008
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85106574018
ISSN
2058-5543
DOI
10.1093/jue/juab008
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e4c214e7-7fda-4a1e-9d05-fc3cc8fe908f
date added to LUP
2021-06-14 11:26:01
date last changed
2023-02-21 10:26:12
@article{e4c214e7-7fda-4a1e-9d05-fc3cc8fe908f,
  abstract     = {{<p>Cities currently harbour more than half of the world's human population and continued urban expansion replaces natural landscapes and increases habitat fragmentation. The impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity have been extensively studied in some parts of the world, but there is limited information from South Asia, despite the rapid expansion of cities in the region. Here, we present the results of monthly surveys of butterflies in three urban parks in Dhaka city, Bangladesh, over a 3-year period (January 2014 to December 2016). We recorded 45% (137 of the 305 species) of the country's butterfly richness, and 40% of the species detected are listed as nationally threatened. However, butterfly species richness declined rapidly in the three study areas over the 3-year period, and the decline appeared to be more severe among threatened species. We developed linear mixed effect models to assess the relationship between climatic variables and butterfly species richness. Overall, species richness was positively associated with maximum temperature and negatively with mean relative humidity and saturation deficit. Our results demonstrate the importance of urban green spaces for nationally threatened butterflies. With rapidly declining urban green spaces in Dhaka and other South Asian cities, we are likely to lose refuges for threatened fauna. There is an urgent need to understand urban biodiversity dynamics in the region, and for proactive management of urban green spaces to protect butterflies in South Asia. </p>}},
  author       = {{Chowdhury, Shawan and Shahriar, Shihab A. and Böhm, Monika and Jain, Anuj and Aich, Upama and Zalucki, Myron P. and Hesselberg, Thomas and Morelli, Federico and Benedetti, Yanina and Persson, Anna S. and Roy, Deponkor K. and Rahman, Saima and Ahmed, Sultan and Fuller, Richard A.}},
  issn         = {{2058-5543}},
  keywords     = {{environmental predictor; South Asia; species richness; threatened butterflies; urban ecology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Urban Ecology}},
  title        = {{Urban green spaces in Dhaka, Bangladesh, harbour nearly half the country's butterfly diversity}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jue/juab008}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/jue/juab008}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}