A test of desert shrub facilitation via radiotelemetric monitoring of a diurnal lizard.

ABSTRACT: Preservation of desert ecosystems is a worldwide conservation priority. Shrubs can play a key role in the structure of desert communities and can function as foundation species. Understanding desert shrub ecology is therefore an important task in desert conservation. A useful model for the function of shrubs in deserts is ecological facilitation, which explores benefits that shrubs confer on their community. Facilitation has been well developed in the context of shrub-plant interactions but less well studied for plant-animal interactions. We used radiotelemetry to test the hypothesis that a dominant desert shrub facilitates one species of diurnal lizard. We hypothesized that the blunt-nosed leopard lizard Gambelia sila would spend some part of its daily activity cycle associated wit

SUBMITTER: Westphal MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6303751 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature