Tropical dry forest fragments important to conserving reptile biodiversity in Colombia

About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Subscribe

SHARE:

Tropical dry forest fragments important to conserving reptile biodiversity in Colombia
mongabay.com
December 1, 2008

An important task in tropical conservation is to understand which species are particularly vulnerable to extinction, and identify the characteristics that put them at risk. Because habitat loss and fragmentation are at the root of the global extinction crisis, an extensive collection of literature has developed around profiling species assemblages in fragmented landscapes. It is also clear that species may respond differently to fragmentation, but many species experience direct or indirect negative effects, sometimes resulting in local extirpation in habitat patches.

Tropical dry forests are biodiversity rich, have a more restricted geographic distribution than tropical wet forests, and have undergone, as a result of human activity, a severe process of transformation to human modified landscapes. In the Neotropics, this change has resulted in vast losses of tropical dry forest areas, and in many cases remaining forests are found heavily fragmented. These highly seasonal tropical forests harbor rich assemblages of reptiles, but less is known about them than is the case for tropical wet forests.

Writing in the December issue of Tropical Conservation Science, Juan E. Carvajal-Cogollo and Nicolás Urbina-Cardona provide new information on the reptile species assemblages found in forest fragments in the Colombian Caribbean region. They recorded the highest reptile richness in larger forest fragments, but species-area relationship was not apparent, and they also point out that the greatest amount of species exchange was between larger and smaller forest fragments, suggesting that both large and small fragments are important for the persistence of reptile species in the fragmented landscape.

Carvajal-Cogollo, J. E. and Urbina-Cardona, J. N. 2008. Patrones de diversidad y composición de reptiles en fragmentos de bosque seco tropical en Córdoba, Colombia. Tropical Conservation Science Vol.1 (4):397-416.

Share | Email

CITATION:
mongabay.com (December 01, 2008). Tropical dry forest fragments important to conserving reptile biodiversity in Colombia. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1201-carvajal-cogollo_tcs.html

Tags:
tropical conservation science ecology wildlife conservation biodiversity herps colombia latin america south america forests green environment

print

News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home

Advertisements:

Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing

Mongabay Store
Wildlife of Madagascar T-shirt		Bold and Dangerous - Pygmy tyrant
Love me before I'm gone - Gladiator frog		Licking this frog may make you crazy

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

SUPPORT
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)

Help support mongabay.com when you buy from Amazon.com

Photos

Alaska	Argentina	Australia
Belize	Brazil	Cambodia
China	Colombia	Costa Rica
Deforestation	Frog	Gabon
Grand Canyon	Honduras	India
Indonesia	Kenya	Laos
Lemur	Madagascar	Malaysia
Monkey	New Zealand	Panama
Peru	Rainforest	Sunset
Suriname	Tanzania	Thailand
Uganda	United States	Venezuela

HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS

CALENDARS

Mount Kenya

East Africa Safari Wildlife

Kenya's Turkana People

Madagascar Chameleons

CANVAS BAGS

Hallucinogenic frog bag

Madagascar wildlife bag

Mongabay.com's Fan Page on Facebook

Copyright mongabay 2010

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect,
an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region.
Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant.