Ecological and anthropogenic covariates ... - GANGAPEDIA

Figure 6: Box-and-whiskers plots comparing gharial counts across sampling
occasions.
The abundance of gharials in a segment on either banks were plotted against (a)
Extent of sand mining on the corresponding bank (b) extent of cultivation on the
corresponding bank (c) extent of human presence on the corresponding bank (d)
extent of livestock presence on the corresponding bank. The plots (Refer Appendix 1)
suggest that gharial abundance drops sharply when disturbance levels are present.
Most plots show that gharial abundance is heavily clumped at zero values of
disturbance.
A comparison of gharial counts across the 4 sampling occasions shows that similar
relative abundances were recorded across sites, assuming closure and detection did
not change as the dry season progressed. However, marked changes in river discharge
and temperature within the same period imply that different ecological covariates may
be influencing gharials at different periods. Site-specificity may also suggest the
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