Reproductive investment of a lacertid lizard in fragmented habitat
(2005) In Conservation Biology 19(5). p.1578-1585- Abstract
- We studied the effect of habitat fragmentation on female reproductive investment in a widespread lacertid lizard (Psammodromus algirus) in a mixed-forest archipelago of deciduous and evergreen oak woods in northern Spain. We captured gravid females in fragments (<= 10 ha) and forests (>= 200 ha) and brought them to the laboratory, where they laid their eggs. We incubated the eggs and released the first cohort of juveniles into the wild to monitor their survival. Females from fragments produced a smaller clutch mass and laid fewer eggs (relative to mean egg mass) than females of similar body size from forests. Lizards did not trade larger clutches for larger offspring, however, because females from fragments did not lay larger eggs... (More)
- We studied the effect of habitat fragmentation on female reproductive investment in a widespread lacertid lizard (Psammodromus algirus) in a mixed-forest archipelago of deciduous and evergreen oak woods in northern Spain. We captured gravid females in fragments (<= 10 ha) and forests (>= 200 ha) and brought them to the laboratory, where they laid their eggs. We incubated the eggs and released the first cohort of juveniles into the wild to monitor their survival. Females from fragments produced a smaller clutch mass and laid fewer eggs (relative to mean egg mass) than females of similar body size from forests. Lizards did not trade larger clutches for larger offspring, however, because females from fragments did not lay larger eggs (relative to their number) than females from forests. Among the first cohort of juveniles, larger egg mass and body size increased the probability of recapture the next year Thus, fragmentation decreased the relative fecundity of lizards without increasing the quality of their offspring. Reduced energy availability, increased predation risk, and demographic stochasticity could decrease the fitness of lizards in fragmented habitats, which could contribute to the regional scarcity of this species in agricultural areas sprinkled with small patches of otherwise suitable forest. Our results show that predictable reduction of reproductive output with decreasing size of habitat patches can be added to the already known processes that cause inverse density dependence at low population numbers. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/145195
- author
- Diaz, JA ; Perez-Tris, Javier LU ; Telleria, JL ; Carbonell, R and Santos, T
- organization
- publishing date
- 2005
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Conservation Biology
- volume
- 19
- issue
- 5
- pages
- 1578 - 1585
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000232137900027
- scopus:28344453767
- ISSN
- 0888-8892
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00197.x
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Animal Ecology (Closed 2011) (011012001)
- id
- 2385760d-28d0-4849-9687-9d48e78cfeee (old id 145195)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:38:56
- date last changed
- 2022-02-12 23:34:21
@article{2385760d-28d0-4849-9687-9d48e78cfeee,
abstract = {{We studied the effect of habitat fragmentation on female reproductive investment in a widespread lacertid lizard (Psammodromus algirus) in a mixed-forest archipelago of deciduous and evergreen oak woods in northern Spain. We captured gravid females in fragments (<= 10 ha) and forests (>= 200 ha) and brought them to the laboratory, where they laid their eggs. We incubated the eggs and released the first cohort of juveniles into the wild to monitor their survival. Females from fragments produced a smaller clutch mass and laid fewer eggs (relative to mean egg mass) than females of similar body size from forests. Lizards did not trade larger clutches for larger offspring, however, because females from fragments did not lay larger eggs (relative to their number) than females from forests. Among the first cohort of juveniles, larger egg mass and body size increased the probability of recapture the next year Thus, fragmentation decreased the relative fecundity of lizards without increasing the quality of their offspring. Reduced energy availability, increased predation risk, and demographic stochasticity could decrease the fitness of lizards in fragmented habitats, which could contribute to the regional scarcity of this species in agricultural areas sprinkled with small patches of otherwise suitable forest. Our results show that predictable reduction of reproductive output with decreasing size of habitat patches can be added to the already known processes that cause inverse density dependence at low population numbers.}},
author = {{Diaz, JA and Perez-Tris, Javier and Telleria, JL and Carbonell, R and Santos, T}},
issn = {{0888-8892}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{5}},
pages = {{1578--1585}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Conservation Biology}},
title = {{Reproductive investment of a lacertid lizard in fragmented habitat}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00197.x}},
doi = {{10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00197.x}},
volume = {{19}},
year = {{2005}},
}