Riparian Areas and Conservation of Herpetofauna in a Tropical Dry Forest in Western Mexico

Abstract

Studies that assess the importance of riparian habitats in maintaining diversity of herpetofaunal assemblages in tropical dry forests are limited. We examined changes in abundance, diversity and composition of anuran, lizard and snake assemblages along stream edge-upslope gradients in conserved and disturbed areas of tropical dry forest on the Pacific coast of México. We sampled 659 plots in six watersheds over 2yr. Two forest conditions (conserved and human disturbed, with three watersheds as replicates) were evaluated in the dry and rainy season. Within each watershed, plots were randomly located at three different distance categories from either stream edge: 0-10m (near-stream environment), 30-40m (mid-slope environment), and 50-60m (upslope environment). Herpetofauna was surveyed by time-constrained searches with a sampling effort of 1980 person-hours. Eighteen anuran, 18 lizard and 23 snake species were recorded. Overall, abundance and diversity of lizards and snakes decreased from near-stream to upslope areas in both forest conditions and seasons; while that of anurans followed this trend only for the conserved forest during the rainy season. Regardless of distance, abundance and diversity of anurans markedly decreased during the dry season, while that of snakes and lizards increased. Overall, our study shows that the importance of riparian areas for herpetofaunal conservation in dry tropical forests varies with forest condition and season. Abstract in Spanish is available at © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2010 by The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.