Climate change and its impact on Lepidopterous fauna in Ayubia National Park-Abbottabad
Climate change and its impact on Lepidopterous fauna in Ayubia National Park-Abbottabad
Ghulam Ali Bajwa and Muhammad Waseem
ABSTRACT
Impacts of changing climate were assessed on lepidopterous fauna in Ayubia National Park, Galies Forest Division-Abbottabad. The maximum, minimum and mean temperature regimes of the Park were 16.3±0.08oC, 6.1±0.09oC and 11.2±0.08oC, respectively, while precipitation regime was 915.1±25.37 mm/annum. The warmest year was 2001. Monsoon was the warmest and the wettest season. The highest temperature increase was 2.4oC in minimum temperature during winter. Overall precipitation increased by 3.36%, however, precipitation decreased during spring and summer by 15.3% and 2.2%, respectively. A total of 101 butterflies and moths species were collected, which belonged to 18 families. Among these, 42 species were new in the Park area. About 70% of the species migrated from lower elevation or from dry temperate forest to moist temperate forest. Margalef Species Distribution Index (3.25) showed greater richness of species during 2011-12 compared to 1960s. Shannon Wiener Maximum Species Evenness Index (2.64) showed greater species evenness in different niches of the Park during the study period. The highest increase in species number was recorded in family Noctuidae. Temporal Temperature showed highly significant (p<0.01) impact on species number. There was a positive linear correlation between increasing temperature and number of insect species, as well as between precipitation and species number.
Key words: Climate change, Temperature, Precipitation, Insect fauna, Lepidoptera, Insect species, Ayubia National Park, Pakistan
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June 2013
Vol. 63, Iss. 2
