Recovery of lizard assembages 10 years after reduced-impact logging in central-eastern Amazonia

Abstract

Understanding changes in species composition due to human-induced habitat modification and environmental filtering is essential for formulating effective conservation strategies. Species turnover resulting from reduced-impact logging (RIL) is expected in the short term, generally with species adapted to open areas replacing those dependent on old-growth forest. However, little is known about how RIL activities influence assemblages after the perturbation ceased. We sampled lizards across an edaphic and vegetation-structure gradient in 64 plots in the Brazilian Amazon to test the hypothesis that changes in assemblage composition and proportion of heliothermic species are due to canopy openness resulting from ceased RIL activities and individual tree falls or to other environmental gradients. Contrary to expectations, canopy openness did not significantly affect the overall composition of lizard assemblages, but nearby unforested areas influenced assemblage composition, resulting in a higher proportion of heliothermic species. The composition of lizard assemblages was also significantly influenced by the distance to the nearest water body, vegetation height, and soil sand content. However, leaf litter height did not have a detectable impact on the composition of lizard assemblages. We conclude that short-term changes in species composition due to habitat modification by RIL do not persist in the long term after the perturbation ceases, and the assemblages may recover as vegetation regenerates. Although lizard species respond to spatial and temporal variation in environmental characteristics, we found evidence that lizard assemblages recover as reduced-impact logging (RIL) activities cease and vegetation regenerates.

Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.