Using Canals in Southern Florida to Measure Impacts of Urbanization on Herpetofaunal Community Composition

Ljustina, Oliver; Barrett, Shelby

doi:10.1656/058.017.0201

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…For an instance, most of the species can reach large sizes, being potentially harmful to humans (Khan et al ., 2020), which requires coordinated public actions to reduce human–reptile conflicts (Kofron, 2004). Some studies have evaluated the nesting ecology of Crocodylus moreletii in an urban lake in Mexico (López‐Luna et al ., 2015; Villegas et al ., 2017), while Alligator mississippiensis has been used to assess urban stream quality (Ljustina & Barrett, 2018). Likewise, a high number of snakes was recorded, mostly from inventories on the herpetofauna of urban greenspaces.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global assessment of research on urban ecology of reptiles: patterns, gaps and future directions

Brum

Gonçalves

Strüssmann

et al. 2022

Animal Conservation

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Global urban expansion has multiple impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Still, urban centres may play an important role in the conservation of reptiles, an undersampled, megadiverse and unevenly distributed group especially vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts. However, major gaps in research on the urban ecology of reptiles and species responses to urbanisation persist, which may limit our capacity to guide suitable conservation policies. We conducted a global systematic literature review to evaluate biogeographic, taxonomic and ecological research biases in the urban ecology of reptiles and ultimately to detect major gaps and steer future sampling efforts. Our database comprised 278 articles dealing with biological responses to urbanisation of 493 species across 45 countries, comprising 658 cases between a given species and specific biological response. Research on the urban ecology of reptiles was geographically and taxonomically biased. Developed countries within temperate regions were better sampled, whereas developing tropical and megadiverse countries were mostly undersampled or neglected. Among reptile orders, Testudines and Crocodylia were proportionally more studied than Squamata. Across lower groups within Squamata, lizards were present in most studies and were the biological model most commonly used. Studies evaluating biological responses associated with landscape-level processes, behaviour and/or population dynamics were prevalent, whereas conservation, human-reptile conflicts and wildlife management were the least considered topics. Our results show that research on urban ecology of reptiles is unevenly distributed across regions and lineages. Overcoming these major gaps is an important step towards the improvement of the conservation of reptiles worldwide under the upcoming biodiversity loss scenario. Beyond spreading sampling efforts across undersampled countries, taxa and research topics to meet conservation objectives, we recommend more multidisciplinary approaches to evaluate and compare the actual performance of reptiles in urban environments and to achieve the equilibrium between human well-being and species conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global assessment of research on urban ecology of reptiles: patterns, gaps and future directions

Brum

Gonçalves

Strüssmann

et al. 2022

Animal Conservation

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“…We considered this nding unusual, as they are considered a generalist species in terms of both diet and habitat, and are presumed to be tolerant of habitat modi cation (Gibbons and Dorcas 2004, but see Todd et al 2016 for a contrasting view). However, this aversion to heavily modi ed systems appears to be replicated in canals in southern Florida (Ljustina and Barrett 2018). Given that the highly terrestrial Plain-bellied Watersnake was present (Keck 1998), it seems unlikely that a similar inclination towards use of terrestrial environments in Southern Watersnakes relative to other watersnake species is responsible for their absence, nor could their absence be ascribed to a lack of anuran prey, upon which larger individuals of this species preferentially feed upon (Mushinsky et al 1982).…”

Section: Community Composition and Watersnake Species Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…However, certain features of urban areas provide practical remedies to some of these inherent problems, allowing for effective sampling given the appropriate model group. For example, ood control canals, often traversing highly urbanized matrices, are generally accessible and potentially support a rich herpetofauna, including semi-aquatic snake species (Ljustina 2017;Ljustina and Barrett 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Canal structure influences watersnake assemblage structure in an urban environment

Ljustina

Crother

Doody

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The precise manner in which vertebrate species utilize urban environments remains to be explored in a variety of taxa, with snakes in particular being poorly studied. Watersnakes (Genus: Nerodia) are semiaquatic snakes found throughout the eastern United States and are known to occur in urban systems. Four species of watersnake are commonly found in freshwater environments in southeastern Louisiana: Mississippi Green Watersnake, Plain-bellied Watersnake, Southern Watersnake, and Diamond-backed Watersnake. Plain-bellied Watersnake and Southern Watersnake preferentially feed on anurans, while Mississippi Green Watersnake and Diamond-backed Watersnake tend to be more piscivorous in their feeding habits. Water depth is important in structuring anuran and fish community structure, with shallower water bodies typically supporting higher anuran abundance and richness, and deeper waters supporting more fishes. We examined watersnakes in canal transects of varying depth in Kenner, Louisiana to test the hypotheses that species that feed on anurans would be more abundant in shallower canals, while species that preferentially feed on fishes would be more abundant in deeper canals. We found significant correlation between watersnake assemblage and anuran/fish community structure, with the Plain-bellied Watersnake most abundant in the shallowest canal transects, Mississippi Green Watersnake most abundant in transects of intermediate depth, and Diamond-backed Watersnake most abundant in the shallow transects. The former two species largely followed the hypothesized trends, while the Diamond-backed Watersnake did not.

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“…Toads were accidentally released near the Miami International Airport in the 1950s [15] and began breeding in rockpits created south of the runways, where they purportedly spread through the extensive man-made canal system in Miami [16]. Subsequent importations and human transport have expanded the cane toad range throughout southern and central Florida (Figure 1, [17][18][19]), where its propensity for urbanization is evidenced by observations around homes, residential lawns, golf courses, and other infrastructure [16,[20][21][22][23]. [17], U.S. Geological Survey Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database [18], and Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System (EDDMapS; [19]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faunal Diet of Adult Cane Toads, Rhinella marina, in the Urban Landscape of Southwest Florida

Schuman,

Snyder,

Smoak

et al. 2023

Animals

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We investigated the diet of cane toads (Rhinella marina) inhabiting urbanized areas in southwest Florida to provide high taxonomic resolution of prey items, contrast toad diets between sampling seasons and sexes, and assess this invasive species’ ecological role in the urban landscape. A pest control agency collected cane toads from two golf course communities in Naples, Florida, USA during November–December 2018 (early dry season) and June–July 2019 (early wet season), and faunal stomach contents were quantified from a random subsample of 240 adult toads (30 males and 30 females from each community and season). Yellow-banded millipedes (Anadenobolus monilicornis), big-headed ants (Pheidole spp.), and hunting billbugs (Sphenophorus venatus vestitus) were the most frequently consumed prey items and had the highest total numbers and/or volume with corresponding highest indices of relative importance. There was considerable overlap in the seasonal prey importance values for each golf course community and little if any difference in the importance values between toad sexes in each community. Nonetheless, big-headed ants were the most important prey in both communities during the wet season, while yellow-banded millipedes were the most important dry season prey in one community and hunting billbugs the most important in the other. Despite limited spatiotemporal sampling effort, our results indicated that cane toad was consuming arthropod taxa considered pests in the urban ecosystem. Further studies are needed to investigate the potential effects of human activities and environmental variability on the cane toad diet and to determine whether cane toads act as a biological control for pest populations.

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Using Canals in Southern Florida to Measure Impacts of Urbanization on Herpetofaunal Community Composition

Cited by 5 publications

References 19 publications

A global assessment of research on urban ecology of reptiles: patterns, gaps and future directions

A global assessment of research on urban ecology of reptiles: patterns, gaps and future directions

Canal structure influences watersnake assemblage structure in an urban environment

Faunal Diet of Adult Cane Toads, Rhinella marina, in the Urban Landscape of Southwest Florida

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