Effects of anthropogenic disturbances on the diversity and composition of the butterfly fauna of sites in the Sango Bay and Iriiri areas, Uganda: implications for conservation

Abstract

In assessing environmental change, butterflies have been proven as replicable indicators of biodiversity and functional integrity that can be monitored at a range of scales. Butterflies have been identified as important bio‐indicators for assessing biodiversity and monitoring ecosystem responses to environmental perturbations. The objectives of this study were to determine changes in the butterfly fauna of differing sites in the Sango Bay Area (SBA) and Iriiri (Karamoja) in comparison with data collected 10 years ago, and to investigate the impact of different degrees of habitat disturbance on butterflies. The general butterfly diversity was determined by trapping and sweep netting along transect lines and by random sweeping. The impact of human‐induced disturbance was assessed by comparing species richness and composition between the sites and regressing the weighted disturbances against species diversity per site. There was a marked decrease in species diversity and varied species composition between the two studies and between the habitat types. Charcoal burning and grazing had significant negative correlations with diversity within forest sites (r2 = 0.825, P < 0.05), whereas cultivation and tree cutting/logging had significant negative correlations with diversity of open savannas (r2 = 0.718, P < 0.05 and r2 = 0.999, P < 0.05, respectively).

Butterfly Community Composition Across a Successional Gradient in a Human‐disturbed Afro‐tropical Rain Forest

“…). Akite () reported decreased butterfly species richness, abundance, and diversity from primary to disturbed forests, while others have reported the opposite pattern (Horner‐Devine et al . , Bobo et al .…”

“…). The varying results have been attributed to methodological differences among studies (Koh ), spatial scale and regional differences among sites (Hamer & Hill , Cleary ), intensity (Brown ) and type of disturbance (Cleary , Akite ), hence making comparisons between studies difficult.…”

Effects of habitat degradation and fragmentation on butterfly biodiversity in West Kotawaringin, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

“…It has been confirmed by many researchers that the degraded habitat will mostly affect the composition of butterfly community. Barlow et al (2007Barlow et al ( , 2008, Akite (2008), and Sáfián et al (2011) stated that there was the decreasing trend of species diversity in the climactic habitat compared to that in the degraded habitat such as secondary forest, plantation and other degraded habitats.…”

“…It has been widely noted that the climactic forest habitat possesses the high number of species compared to the degraded habitat (Barlow et al 2007;Akite 2008;Sáfián et al 2011). However, for another habitat categories under the climactic forest habitat, they did not mostly have the same significant gradation level of degradation habitat as those commonly happened.…”

Drivers of species richness and abundance of butterflies in coffee–banana agroforests in Uganda

“…Butterflies were sampled using three complementary methods (transects walk-and-counts, handnets and fruit-bait traps) universally recommended and extensively used to survey and monitor butterfly populations and communities (Pollard and Yates 1993;Raguso 1993;DeVries and Walla 2001;Kitahara and Sei 2001;Yahner 2001;Fermon et al 2002;Kitahara 2004;Barlow et al 2007;Kitahara et al 2008;van Swaay et al 2008;Marín et al 2009;Vu 2009) in terrestrial ecosystems (Lehmann and Kioko 2005) in the tropics. These sampling methods have been applied in Uganda in previous studies (Owen 1971;Coe et al 1999;Molleman et al 2006;Akite 2008). Butterfly specimens were identified by consulting literature, nomenclature and coloured plates of butterflies and by using the reference collection available at Makerere University Zoology Museum.…”