Vegetation cover and configuration drive reptile species distributions in a fragmented landscape

Abstract

Context Habitat loss and fragmentation are key drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide, yet the influence of landscape structure on species distributions is unknown. Globally, reptiles are thought to be especially sensitive to landscape modification due to their limited capacity for dispersal and reliance on native vegetation. New knowledge of how landscape structure influences species distributions is needed to inform conservation strategies. Aims Our principal aim was to examine the influence of landscape structure on the distributions of 40 terrestrial reptile species in Victoria, southeast Australia. Methods We obtained species occurrence records from the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas, and used MaxEnt to model the distributions of reptile species within Victoria using biophysical and landscape structure variables. A moving window analysis was applied to a land cover map to derive five landscape structure metrics; two metrics represented landscape cover and three represented landscape configuration. Key results Climate variables were generally found to be the strongest drivers of species distributions, although 80% of reptile species were also influenced by landscape structure (permutation importance ≥5%). Of the five landscape structure variables, extent of native vegetation had the greatest influence (30 of 40 species), followed by habitat shape. For Lerista bougainvillii and Tiliqua rugosa, native vegetation cover had a greater influence on their distributions than climate variables. Most species responded positively to native vegetation extent, whereas responses to other landscape structure variables were varied. Conclusions Although most studies of reptile distributions only use biophysical variables in modelling, our research shows that at the scale of our study area, reptile species distributions were also influenced by landscape structure; extent of native vegetation was an important predictor for most species. Integrating landscape structure in modelling has the potential to improve our ability to predict species distributions. Implications Because species distributions are likely to shift due to climate change, knowledge of the influence of landscape structure on distributions will help land managers to facilitate successful range expansions in fragmented landscapes. Our findings indicate that management focused on increasing the extent of native vegetation is likely to provide benefit to most reptile species.

Agriculture cover and local vegetation structure shape Squamata’s diversity in agricultural landscapes in Brazilian Cerrado

“…Terrestrial reptiles are particularly negatively affected in this scenario, especially those that depend on complex terrestrial structures that create thermal conditions for these species (Dorrough et al 2012;Neilly et al 2018). In intensive farming, the use of machines for soil preparation can reduce microhabitats that serve as shelter, nests, foraging, and thermoregulation sites for reptiles (Mulhall et al 2022;Ramírez et al 2023).…”

“…However, croplands tend to increase habitat exposure to wind and water ux reducing the capacity of these areas to act as thermoregulators for reptiles (Ramírez et al 2023). Also, the lizards that have preference for open habitats (Oliveira et al 2021) can be severely affected by livestock activities due to replacement of native grasslands to exotic grasses, cattle overgrazing (Oliveira et al 2021;Băncilă et al 2023), as well as, with the use of re as a management practice (Oliveira et al 2021;Mulhall et al 2022). Terrestrial reptiles are particularly negatively affected in this scenario, especially those that depend on complex terrestrial structures that create thermal conditions for these species (Dorrough et al 2012;Neilly et al 2018).…”

“…In this perspective, our result emphasizes that a continuous unsuitable expansion of agribusiness can threat the survival of reptiles, and consequently the services provided by them in the COFA PELD landscape. Strips of natural vegetation tend to bene t some reptiles' species in Australian agricultural landscapes (Jellinek et al 2014;Mulhall et al 2022). The shape of these strips increases the area of contact with other ecosystems providing additional resources (Ramírez et al 2023), increasing landscape complementation (Sirami et al 2019), connectivity, and number of habitats for reptile's thermoregulation (Ramírez et al 2023).…”

Long-term post-fire succession of reptiles in an urban remnant in south-western Australia

“…Many reptile species have limited dispersal capabilities (Munguia-Vega et al 2013;François et al 2021;Mulhall et al 2022), which when combined with their often small home ranges and sensitivity to changes in microhabitats and vegetation structure (Craig et al 2014;Bradley et al 2022), can render them highly sensitive to disturbance events such as fire (Nimmo et al 2013;Smith et al 2013). As a result, fire has been shown to be a significant factor influencing the composition of reptile communities (Clarke et al 2021;Partridge et al 2023).…”