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

• Published in: Scientific reports 2021-11, Vol.11 (1), p.22709-22709, Article 22709
• Main Authors: Infante, José, Novoa, Fernando J., Ibarra, José Tomás, Melnick, Don J., Griffin, Kevin L., Bonacic, Cristián
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/158/1144; 631/158/2465; 631/158/670; 631/158/672; 631/601/2721; 704/106/694; 704/106/694/2739; Animals; Araucaria; Araucaria - growth & development; Biodiversity; Chile; Ecosystems; Forest & brush fires; Forests; Habitat changes; Habitats; Humanities and Social Sciences; Lizards; Lizards - classification; multidisciplinary; Population Density; Reptiles; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Species; Wildfires
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-02169-3

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.