Seasonal changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of lizard communities in southern Brazilian Pantanal

Abstract

Abstract Seasonal changes play a key ecological role, structuring biotic processes and communities. Yet we generally lack an understanding of how seasonal flood regimes affect communities in floodplains. Herein, we investigated the effects of seasonal changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of lizard communities in southern Pantanal ecoregion. Lizards were sampled in seven sites encompassing seasonally flooded grasslands and dense arboreal savannas, across rainy and dry seasons (2005-2006). Functional diversity metrics were based on three morphological traits and included intraspecific variability. We collected a total of 810 lizards from 13 species. Species richness did not differ across seasons or months. Lizard abundance varied among sampling months, but did not differ between rainy and dry season. Low values of abundance were recorded at drawdown period. Community composition did not vary between seasons. Functional diversity metrics exhibited random distributions, and both functional richness and evenness were not influenced by seasons. Although communities seem to be resilient to seasonal variations, our findings highlighted that transition from rainy to dry season may represent an important constraint on lizard abundance. Including traits related to food acquisition and predator avoidance could provide new insights into the effects of seasonal floods on floodplains’ lizard communities.

Keywords

• abundance
• floodplain
• intraspecific variability
• species traits