Conserving reptiles within a multiple-use landscape: determining habitat affiliations of reptile communities in the northern jarrah forest of south-western Australia

Abstract

Disturbed landscapes can provide habitat for a variety of species; however, for fauna, a strong understanding of their habitat affiliations is critical both to detect species and to develop management prescriptions to maintain their populations. We assessed habitat affiliations of common, uncommon and rare reptile species in a multiple-use landscape, the northern jarrah forest of south-western Australia. To identify predictors of reptile occurrence, we related reptile presence/absence, or relative abundance, to habitat, climatic and seasonal variables. Because the reptiles studied have cryptic behaviours and low numbers of detections, we used a combination of analyses including non-metric multi-dimensional scaling, occupancy and regression models. We identified specific habitat affiliations for the most common species and potential linkages with vegetation structure for most uncommon species. There were insufficient detections to determine habitat affiliations accurately for most rare species. Often species were detected too infrequently to determine specific habitat variables that influence occupancy and detection, and altering survey time and scale may increase detections so that habitat affiliations can be determined. However, in highly speciose landscapes, like our study area, we may not be able to wait until we have enough detections to define the habitat affiliations of all reptiles before we make management decisions. Therefore management activities that maintain habitat heterogeneity and complexity is likely to be the best strategy to conserve the most reptile species.

Temporal longevity of unidirectional and dynamic filters to faunal recolonization in post‐mining forest restoration

“…We did not correct for temporal detectability between sampling periods because detectability models provide inaccurate and inconsistent results when samples sizes are small, as in our study (Welsh et al 2013). Detectability analyses on a larger dataset from the jarrah forest showed detectability was related to two temporal factors, month or maximum temperature (Triska et al 2017), so we restricted analyses to October, December, March and May data from each sampling periods (i.e. excluding November 2010 data).…”

Movement patterns of an arboreal gecko in fragmented agricultural landscapes reveal matrix avoidance

“…Reptiles are sensitive to habitat loss and modification due to their association with specific microhabitats (Manning, Cunningham & Lindenmayer, ; Triska et al ., ; Michael et al ., ), and are undergoing severe declines in agricultural landscapes worldwide (Gibbons et al ., ; Thompson, Nowakowski & Donnelly, ). The orientation and movement decisions of reptile species in response to particular landscape features is likely to have profound impacts on conservation strategies aimed at mitigating the impacts of fragmentation for reptiles, such as restoration of farmland through linear plantings, or the protection of core remnant habitat.…”

Microhabitat selection and niche partitioning in two syntopic geckos

“…Investigating the mechanisms behind niche separation in closely related species can provide knowledge on fine-scale ecological interactions, particularly for restricted species whose basic ecology is poorly known. Understanding a species requirements and interactions on a deeper level can strengthen conservation planning (Filippi & Luiselli 2006;Triska et al 2017), particularly as habitat destruction through both direct and indirect anthropogenic pressures is increasingly an issue in conservation biology, where generalist species are likely to benefit from reduced competition from specialist species (Nordberg & Schwarzkopf 2019).…”