10.5061/DRYAD.H7T362D
de Andrade, Antonio C.
Federal University of ParaĆba
Data from: Metropolitan lizards? Urbanization gradient and the density of
lagartixas (Tropidurus hispidus) in a tropical city
Dryad
dataset
2020
Reptiles
Lizards
Tropidurus hispidus
Density
Holocene
Synurbic species
2020-07-16T00:00:00Z
2019-12-20T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5518
38652 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Urbanization, with its cohort of environmental stressors, has a dramatic
effect on wildlife, causing loss of biodiversity and decline in population
abundance customarily associated with increasing levels of impervious
surface and fragmentation of native habitats. Some studies suggest that
faunal species from open habitats, and with higher abundance in natural
environments, seem more likely to tolerate and live in urban environments.
Here I evaluate how the level of urbanization affects lagartixas
(Tropidurus hispidus) one of the most common lizards found in open
vegetation ecosystems in NE Brazil. I surveyed a total of 47 transects
across sites that differed in proportion of impervious surface (high,
mild, peri-urban and rural). I also collected specific biotic (herbaceous
cover, tree and arthropod abundance) and abiotic (amount of shelters and
impervious surfaces) factors that could affect lagartixas abundance. Ants
were the most common arthropod both in the rural and urban environment.
Lagartixas thrive in urban environments and trees and shelter were key
predictors of their abundance. Lagartixas show a clear association with
use of artificial structures. The low densities of lagartixas in rural
areas and higher density in urbanized areas suggests that they colonized
urban areas due to the hard surfaces and they probably are not exploiting
a novel habitat, but somewhat responding to conditions resembling those in
which they evolved. Finally, lagartixas are extremely common in tropical
cities, they have a suite of features that are associated with selective
pressures in cities and they might play a key functional role in urban
ecosystems making this lizard an excellent system for the study of ecology
and adaptation to the urban environments.
Lagartixas data densityData collected during the surveys used for
estimating the density of lagartixas via distance sampling software.Final
microhabitatsFile containing data used for the multiple regression
analyses. It includes abundance of lizards, number of shelter by
transects, abundance of trees and arthropods, proportion of herbaceous
cover. For further details see methods.
NE Brazil