Ecology and diversity of a lizard community in the semiarid region of Brazil

Authors

  • Maria Jaqueline Monte de Andrade Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN, Departamento de Botânica, Ecologia e Zoologia, Centro de Biociências, Laboratório de Herpetologia
  • Raul Fernandes Dantas Sales Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN, Departamento de Botânica, Ecologia e Zoologia, Centro de Biociências, Laboratório de Herpetologia
  • Eliza Maria Xavier Freire Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN, Departamento de Botânica, Ecologia e Zoologia, Centro de Biociências, Laboratório de Herpetologia

Keywords:

caatinga, activity periods, habitat use, microhabitat use, richness, seasonality

Abstract

Composition, species diversity and resource usage in terms of space and time were evaluated for the lizard community of the Ecological Station of the Seridó (ESEC Seridó), Rio Grande do Norte. An observation area of 150 m × 150 m (2.25 ha) was delimited and surveyed monthly in alternate turns (morning, afternoon and night) for three consecutive days from April to October 2011, covering dry and rainy seasons. Fourteen species belonging to eight families were recorded, being Tropidurus semitaeniatus the most abundant. Seasonality influenced species richness and abundance. Regarding habitat usage, Lygodactylus klugei was the most generalist species, whilePhyllopezus periosus, P. pollicaris and T. semitaeniatus were specialists, showing affinity for rocky formations. About microhabitat usage, the most generalist species was T. hispidus and the most specialized wasL. klugei . Ten of the recorded species have diurnal habits and four are nocturnal. The space and time usage profiles of the dominant species corroborated data obtained in previous autoecological studies conducted in the same area and suggest a pattern of resource usage by these species in the ESEC Seridó.

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Published

2013-09-01

How to Cite

Andrade, M. J. M. de, Sales, R. F. D., & Freire, E. M. X. (2013). Ecology and diversity of a lizard community in the semiarid region of Brazil. Biota Neotropica, 13(3). Retrieved from //www.biotaneotropica.org.br/BN/article/view/1277

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