Microhabitat selection of the poorly known lizard Tropidurus lagunablanca (Squamata: Tropiduridae) in the Pantanal, Brazil
Departamento de Ciências BiológicasBenício, Ronildo Alves; Departamento de BiociênciasPassos, Daniel Cunha; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia AnimalMencía, Abraham; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e ConservaçãoOrtega, Zaida.
Pap. avulsos zool;
61: e20216118, 2021. tab, graf
Artigo
em Inglês
|
LILACS-Express
| ID: biblio-1287477
Resumo
Abstract Understanding how different environmental factors influence species occurrence is a key issue to address the study of natural populations. However, there is a lack of knowledge on how local traits influence the microhabitat use of tropical arboreal lizards. Here, we investigated the microhabitat selection of the poorly known lizard Tropidurus lagunablanca (Squamata: Tropiduridae) and evaluated how environmental microhabitat features influence animal's presence. We used a Resource Selection Function approach, in a case/control design where we analyzed the effect of substrate temperature and tree's diameter at breast height (DBH) in the probability of presence of lizards using mixed Conditional Logistic Regression. We found that T. lagunablanca uses trees with DBH from 0.40 m to 4 m and substrate temperatures ranging from 25.9°C to 42°C. Moreover, we showed that thickness of the trees and substrate temperatures significantly increased the probability of presence of T. lagunablanca individuals, being the probability of presence higher than 50% for trees up to 1.5 m DBH and temperature of substrate up to 37.5°C. Our study probed that T. lagunablanca individuals choose trees non-randomly, selecting thicker and warmer tree trunks. This information advances the knowledge of the spatial ecology of Neotropical arboreal lizards and is relevant for conservation, putting an emphasis on preserving native vegetation in the Pantanal.
Biblioteca responsável:
BR1.1
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