Abstract
While climate change and sea level rise threaten species across the globe, species in low-lying coastal regions, such as South Florida, are projected to face particularly severe threats. One such species is the Florida reef gecko (Sphaerodactylus notatus), the only gecko native to the eastern U.S., and a highly understudied species that persists in heavily fragmented habitats of only three coastal Florida counties. To assess the conservation status of this species, we conducted surveys throughout South Florida to determine potential extirpations from historic localities and to delimit S. notatus’ current distribution. We also estimated the level of threat S. notatus faces from sea level rise relative to other species by analyzing sea level risk of all herpetofauna in the U.S. We detected geckos in only 41% of sites with appropriate habitat, and in only 65% of historic localities. Geckos were only present within 1.2 km from the coast, and the minimum 2.2 m of sea level rise already expected based on current carbon emissions will place 85% of suitable S. notatus habitat under water. Our findings were used to update the conservation risk of S. notatus according to IUCN and Florida guidelines for listing threatened and endangered species, and suggest this species now fits the criteria to warrant listing. In comparison to all other U.S. herpetofaunal species, we found that S. notatus is the most at risk from sea level rise due its fidelity to low-lying coastal habitats.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation Department and the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program for providing the necessary permits for all Miami-Dade County localities. We are also thankful to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Division of Recreation and Parks, Everglades National Park, and Biscayne National Park for providing the necessary permits for state and national park localities. We are extremely grateful to the many individual park and preserve managers from county, state, and privately-owned localities who took the time to orient us to their individual preserves and assist us in this project. We thank H. Howell, K. Kiesewetter, and J. Levine for their assistance with field surveys and M. Wood for captaining the boat needed for surveys in Biscayne National Park. We are grateful for the thoughtful comments of the editor and two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions improved this manuscript. Finally, we thank the University of Miami for financial support of this work.
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SLC and CAS conceived the ideas; SLC, EAP, and CAS designed the methodology and collected the data; SLC and CAS analyzed the field data while CCM collected and analyzed all other data sets and wrote the computer code; SLC, EAP, and CCM contributed to visualization; SLC led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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This work was conducted under permits from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (permit # LSSC-16-00013A), Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation Department (permit # 281), Florida Department of Environmental Protection Division of Recreation and Parks (permit # 02131915), Everglades National Park (study # EVER-00564; permit # EVER-2018-SCI-0008), and Biscayne National Park (study # BISC-00094; permit # BISC-2018-SCI-0006).
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Procedures involving animals were approved under IACUC protocol number 17–178 at the University of Miami in accordance with the ASIH/HL/SSAR Guidelines for use of live amphibians and reptiles and field research.
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Clements, S.L., Powell, E.A., Mothes, C.C. et al. Assessing the conservation risk of Sphaerodactylus notatus, the U.S. herpetofaunal species most vulnerable to sea level rise. Biodivers Conserv 30, 107–121 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-02080-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-02080-9