Ecological succession and habitat attributes affect the postfire response of a Mediterranean reptile community
Résumé
Wildfires are recognized as natural disturbances that have shaped landscape structure and ecosystem composition in many regions of the world. As ectotherms, many Mediterranean reptiles are expected to benefit from the thermal quality of open areas created by fires. However, not all the reptile species respond positively to this pattern. We have explored the response to fire of a Mediterranean reptile community in a protected area of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. We visually searched for reptiles at 102 sites, including unburnt, recently burnt (2003), and old burnt (1985-1986) localities. The number of reptiles and species richness was higher at burnt sites, and both were related to several variables of the habitat structure. Accordingly, between the two most common species in recently burnt sites, declined in old fire habitats whereas did not. Snakes did not differ between burnt and unburnt areas, although the ambush predator viper was found more frequently in unburnt habitats. Our results imply that there are different succession trajectories for Mediterranean reptile species according to their habitat preferences, life history traits, and dietary specialization. The study area has been drastically human-altered in the last 100 years by agriculture, pine reforestation, agricultural abandonment, and wildfires. These land use changes drastically alter the vegetation cover, favoring some reptiles and damaging others, and finally can promote local extinctions of sensitive species to habitat shifts.
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