Scientific Reports (Nov 2021)

Altered fire regimes modify lizard communities in globally endangered Araucaria forests of the southern Andes

  • José Infante,
  • Fernando J. Novoa,
  • José Tomás Ibarra,
  • Don J. Melnick,
  • Kevin L. Griffin,
  • Cristián Bonacic

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02169-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Wildfire regimes are being altered in ecosystems worldwide. The density of reptiles responds to fires and changes to habitat structure. Some of the most vulnerable ecosystems to human-increased fire frequency are old-growth Araucaria araucana forests of the southern Andes. We investigated the effects of wildfires on the density and richness of a lizard community in these ecosystems, considering fire frequency and elapsed time since last fire. During the 2018/2019 southern summer season, we conducted 71 distance sampling transects to detect lizards in Araucaria forests of Chile in four fire “treatments”: (1) unburned control, (2) long-term recovery, (3) short-term recovery, and (4) burned twice. We detected 713 lizards from 7 species. We found that the density and richness of lizards are impacted by wildfire frequency and time of recovery, mediated by the modification of habitat structure. The lizard community varied from a dominant arboreal species (L. pictus) in unburned and long-recovered stands, to a combination of ground-dwelling species (L. lemniscatus and L. araucaniensis) in areas affected by two fires. Araucaria forests provided key habitat features to forest reptiles after fires, but the persistence of these old-growth forests and associated biodiversity may be threatened given the increase in fire frequency.