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Lizard assemblages in a fragmented landscape of central Chile

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Abstract

We studied lizard assemblages assessing abundance, richness, and nestedness in a fragmented landscape of central Chile including native temperate forest, forest fragments, and commercial pine plantations. Fragmentation and plantations increase the availability of edge habitats triggering both the support of additional lizard species, absent at the continuous forest, and the nestedness of lizard assemblages, where interior habitats of forest and plantations are nested subsets of habitat edges. A vulnerable lizard (Liolaemus tenuis) thrives at fragments in abundance similar to the continuous forest. Therefore, remnants ought to be considered in the conservation of lizard assemblages.

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Acknowledgment

We are grateful to Corporación Nacional Forestal VII Región and Forestal Masisa S.A. for granting permits to work on their states. Special thanks to Fernando Campos and Yuri Zuñiga for field assistance. This research has been partially supported by FONDECYT 1050745.

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  1. Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile

    André V. Rubio & Javier A. Simonetti

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  1. André V. Rubio
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  2. Javier A. Simonetti
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Correspondence to Javier A. Simonetti.

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Communicated by H. Kierdorf

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Rubio, A.V., Simonetti, J.A. Lizard assemblages in a fragmented landscape of central Chile. Eur J Wildl Res 57, 195–199 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-010-0434-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-010-0434-5

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