Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T12:14:02.042Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Microhabitat preferences and guild structure of a tropical reptile community from the Western Ghats of India: implications for conservation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2022

V.J. Jins Open the ORCID record for V.J. Jins [Opens in a new window] ,
Aditi Mukherjee Open the ORCID record for Aditi Mukherjee [Opens in a new window] ,
P.R. Arun Open the ORCID record for P.R. Arun [Opens in a new window] ,
Damian R. Michael Open the ORCID record for Damian R. Michael [Opens in a new window]  and
Subramanian Bhupathy
V.J. Jins*
Affiliation:
Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu641108, India Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Sikkim University, Gangtok, Sikkim737102, India
Aditi Mukherjee
Affiliation:
Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu641108, India
P.R. Arun
Affiliation:
Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu641108, India
Damian R. Michael
Affiliation:
Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales2640, Australia
Subramanian Bhupathy
Affiliation:
Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu641108, India
*
Author for correspondence: V.J. Jins, Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Microhabitat characteristics can be used as a proxy to predict the community structure of associated organisms and evaluate their vulnerability to habitat degradation. Microhabitat-specific and ectothermic taxa (like many reptiles) are among the best models to study responses to changing habitats and climate. We examined the niche breadth and guild structure of reptiles from Agasthyamalai Hills in the southern Western Ghats of India based on microhabitat use data. We recorded a total of 47 reptile species from 1,554 observations comprising two major orders and 11 families. Niche breadth analysis revealed that 45% of reptiles are microhabitat specialists, indicating the importance of protecting their habitats with all structural attributes. Cluster analysis grouped reptile species into four major guilds based on microhabitat preferences. The forest floor-dwelling guild was the largest group with 25 species, followed by the semi-arboreal guild with 12 species. The floor-dwelling guild also exhibited both the highest number of microhabitat specialists (n = 11) and globally threatened species (n = 3), highlighting the need for preserving ground cover characteristics such as leaf litter, boulders, and open ground for conserving reptiles in the region. Considering the microhabitat specializations within the community, we recommend a dynamic approach to monitor abundance, diversity, and habitat quality across the Agasthyamalai landscape to better conserve its rich reptile diversity.

Keywords

Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserveecological nicheguild classificationhabitat conservationherpetofauna
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 38 , Issue 5 , September 2022 , pp. 295 - 303
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

#

Deceased on 28th April 2014

References

Abrams, P (1980) Some comments on measuring niche overlap. Ecology 61, 44–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bars-Closel, M, Kohlsdorf, T, Moen, DS and Wiens, JJ (2017) Diversification rates are more strongly related to microhabitat than climate in squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes). Evolution 71, 2243–2261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, JA and Myers, WL (2005) Associations between avian functional guild response and regional landscape properties for conservation planning. Ecological Indicators 5, 33–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, HW and Christman, SP (1982) Field techniques for herpetofaunal community analysis. Herpetological Communities 13, 193–200.Google Scholar
Caprio, E, Ellena, I and Rolando, A (2009) Assessing habitat/landscape predictors of bird diversity in managed deciduous forests: a seasonal and guild-based approach. Biodiversity and Conservation 18, 1287–1303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Champion, HG and Seth, SK (1968) A Revised Survey of the Forest Types of India. Delhi: Government of India Publications.Google Scholar
Chandramouli, S (2011) Status and microhabitat preference of Otocryptis beddomii Boulenger, 1885 (Reptilia: Agamidae) in Ponmudi Hills, Western Ghats, Kerala, India. Taprobanica 1, 107–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crump, ML and Scott, NJ (1994) Visual encounter surveys. In Heyer, WR, Donnelly, MA, McDiarmid, RW, Hayek, LC and Foster, MS (eds), Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity – Standard Methods for Amphibians. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 84–92.Google Scholar
Das, A, Krishnaswamy, J, Bawa, KS, Kiran, MC, Srinivas, V, Kumar, NS and Karanth, KU (2006) Prioritisation of conservation areas in the Western Ghats, India. Biological Conservation 133, 16–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deepak, V, Narayanan, S, Das, S, Rajkumar, KP, Easa, PS, Sreejith, KA and Gower, DJ (2020) Description of a new species of Xylophis Beddome, 1878 (Serpentes: Pareidae: Xylophiinae) from the Western Ghats, India. Zootaxa 4755, 231–250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deepak, V and Vasudevan, K (2015) Factors influencing the occurrence and vulnerability of the Travancore tortoise Indotestudo travancorica in protected areas in south India. Oryx 49, 669–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garden, JG, Mcalpine, CA, Possingham, HP and Jones, DN (2007) Habitat structure is more important than vegetation composition for local-level management of native terrestrial reptile and small mammal species living in urban remnants: a case study from Brisbane, Australia. Austral ecology 32, 669–685 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibbons, JW, Scott, DE, Ryan, TJ, Buhlmann, KA, Tuberville, TD, Metts, BS, Greene, JL, Mills, T, Leiden, Y, Poppy, S and Winne, CT (2000) The global decline of reptiles, déjà vu amphibians. Bioscience 50, 653–666 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, GR, Howard, S, Stroud, JT, Ul-Hassanah, A, Campling, M, Lardner, B, Scroggie, MP and Kusrini, M (2015) Responses of tropical forest herpetofauna to moderate anthropogenic disturbance and effects of natural habitat variation in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Biological Conservation 192, 161–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giriraj, A, Murthy, MSR and Beierkuhnlein, C (2010) Evaluating forest fragmentation and its tree community composition in the tropical rain forest of Southern Western Ghats (India) from 1973 to 2004. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 161, 29–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harvey, E, Gounand, I, Ward, CL and Altermatt, F (2017) Bridging ecology and conservation: from ecological networks to ecosystem function. Journal of Applied Ecology 54, 371–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hierl, LA, Franklin, J, Deutschman, DH, Regan, HM and Johnson, BS (2008) Assessing and prioritizing ecological communities for monitoring in a regional habitat conservation plan. Environmental Management 42, 165–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, RT, Bonney, RE and Pacala, SW (1979) Guild Structure of the hubbard brook bird community: a multivariate approach. Ecology 60, 512–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inger, RF and Colwell, RK (1977) Organization of contiguous communities of amphibians and reptiles in Thailand. Ecological Monographs 47, 229–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inger, RF, Shaffer, HB, Koshy, M and Bakde, R (1987) Ecological structure of a herpetological assemblage in South India. Amphibia Reptilia 8, 189–202.Google Scholar
Jins, VJ, Bhupathy, S and Panigrahi, M (2014) New record of Beddome’s coral snake Calliophis beddomei Smith, 1943 from the southern Western Ghats, India. Herpetology Notes 7, 555–557.Google Scholar
Jose, J, Ramachandran, KK and Nair, PV (2007) A rare and little known lizard, Otocryptis beddomi, from the Myristica swamps of southern Kerala, India. Herpetological Bulletin 101, 27–31 Google Scholar
Jose, S, Alex, CJ, Kumar, S, Varghese, A and Madhu, G (2011) Landscape metric modeling-a technique for forest disturbance assessment in Shendurney wildlife sanctuary. Environmental Research, Engineering and Management 58, 34–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kodandapani, N, Cochrane, MA and Sukumar, R (2008) A comparative analysis of spatial, temporal, and ecological characteristics of forest fires in seasonally dry tropical ecosystems in the Western Ghats, India. Forest Ecology and Management 256, 607–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korňan, M, Holmes, R, Recher, H, Adamík, P and Kropil, R (2013) Convergence in foraging guild structure of forest breeding bird assemblages across three continents is related to habitat structure and foraging opportunities. Community Ecology 14, 89–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mallik, AK, Achyuthan, NS, Ganesh, SR, Pal, SP, Vijayakumar, SP and Shanker, K (2019) Discovery of a deeply divergent new lineage of vine snake (Colubridae: Ahaetuliinae: Proahaetulla gen. Nov.) from the southern Western Ghats of Peninsular India with a revised key for Ahaetuliinae. PLoS One 14, e0218851.Google Scholar
Manju, CN, Rajesh, KP and Madhusoodanan, PV (2009) Contribution to the bryophyte flora of India: Agasthyamalai biosphere reserve in Western Ghats. Taiwania 54, 57–68.Google Scholar
Marini, L, Bartomeus, I, Rader, R and Lami, F (2019) Species–habitat networks: a tool to improve landscape management for conservation. Journal of Applied Ecology 56, 923–928 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michael, DR, Cunningham, RB and Lindenmayer, DB (2010) Microhabitat relationships among five lizard species associated with granite outcrops in fragmented agricultural landscapes of south-eastern Australia. Austral Ecology 35, 214–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michael, DR, Kay, GM, Crane, M, Florance, D, MacGregor, C, Okada, S, McBurney, L, Blair, D and Lindenmayer, DB (2015) Ecological niche breadth and microhabitat guild structure in temperate Australian reptiles: implications for natural resource management in endangered grassy woodland ecosystems. Austral Ecology 40, 651–660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, N, Mittermeier, RA, Mittermeier, CG, Da Fonseca, GA and Kent, J (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403, 853–858.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nally, RM (1994) Habitat-specific guild structure of forest birds in South-Eastern Australia: a regional scale perspective. The Journal of Animal Ecology 63, 988–1001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nayar, MP (1996) Hot Spots of Endemic Plants of India, Nepal and Bhutan. Trivandrum: Tropical Botanic garden and research Institute.Google Scholar
Oksanen, J, Blanchet, FG, Kindt, R, Legendre, P, Minchin, PR, O’hara, RB, Simpson, GL, Solymos, P, Stevens, MH and Wagner, H (2013) Package Vegan: Community Ecology Package 2–5.Google Scholar
Opdam, P, Foppen, R and Vos, C (2001) Bridging the gap between ecology and spatial planning in landscape ecology. Landscape Ecology 16, 767–779 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pal, S, Vijayakumar, SP, Shanker, K, Jayarajan, A and Deepak, V (2018) A systematic revision of Calotes Cuvier, 1817 (Squamata: Agamidae) from the Western Ghats adds two genera and reveals two new species. Zootaxa 4482, 401–450.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Panigrahi, M and Jins, VJ (2018) Status of birds in Agasthyamalai hills, Western Ghats, Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10, 11166–11184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parthasarathy, N (1999) Tree diversity and distribution in undisturbed and human-impacted sites of tropical wet evergreen forest in southern Western Ghats, India. Biodiversity & Conservation 8, 1365–1381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pianka, ER (1967) On lizard species diversity: North American flatland deserts. Ecology 48, 333–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pianka, ER (1973) The structure of lizard communities. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1973, 53–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pianka, ER (1980) Guild structure in desert lizards. Oikos 35, 194–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramesh, B, Menon, S and Bawa, K (1997) A landscape ecology approach to biodiversity conservation in the Agasthyamalai Region, Western Ghats, India. Ambio 26, 529–536 Google Scholar
R Core Team (2019) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Rodgers, WA, Panwar, HS and Mathur, VB (2002) Wildlife Protected Area Network in India: A Review Executive Summary. Dehradun: Wildlife Institute of India.Google Scholar
Simpson, EH (1949) Measurement of diversity. Nature 163, 688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theisinger, O and Ratianarivo, MC (2015) Patterns of reptile diversity loss in response to degradation in the spiny forest of Southern Madagascar. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 10, 273–283.Google Scholar
Varghese, AO and Balasubramanyan, K (1999) Structure, composition and diversity of the tropical wet evergreen forest of the Agasthyamalai Region of Kerala, Western Ghats. Journal of South Asian Natural History 4, 87–98.Google Scholar
Webb, J K and Shine, R (2000) Paving the way for habitat restoration: can artificial rocks restore degraded habitats of endangered reptiles? Biological Conservation 92, 93–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitfield, SM and Pierce, MSF (2005) Tree buttress microhabitat use by a neotropical leaf-litter herpetofauna. Journal of Herpetology 39, 192–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, SE and Hero, JM (1998) Rainforest frogs of the Australian wet tropics: guild classification and the ecological similarity of declining species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 265, 597–602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, J, Ding, Q and Huang, J (2013) spaa: Species Association Analysis. R Package Version 0.2, 1.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Jins et al. supplementary material

Jins et al. supplementary material

Download Jins et al. supplementary material(File)
File 23.7 KB