Bird Diversity, Abundance, and Evenness Rates in Ecotone Area of Sutan Syarif Hasyim Forest Park, Riau, Indonesia

Abstract

Ecotone – an area where two environments of different composition and structure meet due to land conversion – is prone to habitat loss and biodiversity devaluation as a result of fragmentation. Responsive to change, birds represent one of the common animals of all habitat types since their diversity and abundance are able to reflect ecological tendencies in different biodiversity. This study was aimed to analyze the diversity, abundance, and evenness of birds as well as determine their density and frequency in the ecotone area of Sutan Syarif Hasyim Forest Park, Riau, Indonesia. Six sections of the study area (natural forest-and-shrubbery, natural forest-and-palm oil plantation, natural forest-and-lake, shrubbery-and-palm oil plantation, shrubbery-and-lake, and palm oil plantation-and-lake) were observed by employing Line Intercept Transect. 1 182 individuals of 59 bird species were reported, with Pycnonotusaurigaster (Vieillot, 1818) as the dominant one. The total diversity index of 3.75, abundance 8.2 and evenness 0.92 were evident to high density and frequency of birds in the area.