Habitat Partitioning and Overlap by Large Lacertid Lizards in Southern Europe

Abstract

South-western Europe has a rich diversity of lacertid lizards. In this study, we evaluated the occupancy patterns and niche segregation of five species of lacertids, focusing on large-bodied species (i.e., adults having >75 mm snout-vent length) that occur in south-western Europe (Italian to the Iberian Peninsula). We characterized the niches occupied by these species based on climate and vegetation cover properties. We expected some commonality among phylogenetically related species, but also patterns of habitat segregation mitigating competition between ecologically equivalent species. We used multivariate ordination and probabilistic methods to describe the occupancy patterns and evaluated niche evolution through phylogenetic analyses. Our results showed climate niche partitioning, but with a wide overlap in transitional zones, where segregation is maintained by species-specific responses to the vegetation cover. The analyses also showed that phylogenetically related species tend to share large parts of their habitat niches. The occurrence of independent evolutionary lineages contributed to the regional species richness favored by a long history of niche divergence.

Evolutionary Ecology of Lizards: Lessons from a Special Issue

“…Their results underscore the key role of climate structuring species segregation, as well as the influence of vegetation cover maintaining partition within the overlapped areas [8]. They also confirmed that overlapping tends to be greater in closely-related species [8].…”

“…These premises were the foundation of the contribution by Escoriza and Amat [8] to this Special Issue. In their article, they categorized the niches occupied by the largest Lacertid lizards in Southwestern Europe according to climate and vegetation cover, controlled for a mitochondrial-DNA based phylogeny [8]. Their results underscore the key role of climate structuring species segregation, as well as the influence of vegetation cover maintaining partition within the overlapped areas [8].…”

“…In their article, they categorized the niches occupied by the largest Lacertid lizards in Southwestern Europe according to climate and vegetation cover, controlled for a mitochondrial-DNA based phylogeny [8]. Their results underscore the key role of climate structuring species segregation, as well as the influence of vegetation cover maintaining partition within the overlapped areas [8]. They also confirmed that overlapping tends to be greater in closely-related species [8].…”

“…Rarely are these processes stagnant, as the establishment of biogeographical limits among species is usually the outcome of complex intra and interspecific dynamics that are not alien to phylogenetic relationships: more related species are more likely to overlap in their ecological requirements [7]. These premises were the foundation of the contribution by Escoriza and Amat [8] to this Special Issue. In their article, they categorized the niches occupied by the largest Lacertid lizards in Southwestern Europe according to climate and vegetation cover, controlled for a mitochondrial-DNA based phylogeny [8].…”

Testing hypotheses of habitat use and temporal activity in relation to body plan in a Mediterranean lizard community

“…Climatic features include humidity, temperature and shadiness of the habitats and are often inter-correlated with structural features. These are more important in large scale studies of niche ecology than in smaller scale studies (Escoriza and Amat 2021).…”