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- Title
Reptile responses to outdoor recreation in urban habitat fragments.
- Authors
Larson, Courtney L.; Reed, Sarah E.; Crooks, Kevin R.
- Abstract
The world is urbanizing rapidly, resulting in increasing rates of habitat loss and fragmentation. Protected areas are commonly established to restrict development and conserve native ecological communities. Yet urban protected areas often receive high levels of recreational activity, which can reduce their conservation effectiveness because of disturbance to animals. Recreation has negative consequences for many animal species, but its effects on reptiles are largely unknown. We evaluated the effects of non-consumptive recreation on reptiles within urban protected areas in a fragmented landscape in coastal southern California, USA. We surveyed lizards and snakes along a gradient of recreation intensity and modeled species richness, community composition, and occupancy in relation to human activity along with other variables known to affect reptile distributions. We observed a decline in lizard species richness in association with human activity. Richness of habitat specialists was not related to recreation, but smaller-bodied lizards and lizards with narrower active temperature ranges were less common at sites with high human activity. Human activity was associated with a decline in occupancy of the common side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana), no meaningful relationship with occupancy of the orange-throated whiptail (Aspidoscelis hyperythra) and a positive relationship with western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) occupancy and/or detection probability. Our study demonstrates that increasing rates of recreation activity can reduce the ability of urban protected areas to conserve diverse reptile assemblages.
- Subjects
CALIFORNIA; OUTDOOR recreation; REPTILES; BIOTIC communities; FRAGMENTED landscapes; SPECIES diversity; HABITATS
- Publication
Urban Ecosystems, 2024, Vol 27, Issue 2, p453
- ISSN
1083-8155
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11252-023-01464-3