气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Habitat requirements of an arboreal Australian snake (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus) are influenced by hollow abundance in living trees

CCPortal

DOI	10.1016/j.foreco.2019.117675
	Habitat requirements of an arboreal Australian snake (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus) are influenced by hollow abundance in living trees
	Shelton M.B.; Phillips S.S.; Goldingay R.L.
发表日期	2020
ISSN	0378-1127
卷号	455
英文摘要	The value of tree hollows (cavities) to wildlife is well documented among birds and mammals, however few studies focus on their importance for snakes. Given increasing concern about the global net loss of hollow-bearing trees, it is imperative that studies extend to other vertebrate classes that may be dependent on this structural habitat component. We tested the hypothesis that habitat selection of an arboreal elapid, the pale-headed snake (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus), is primarily influenced by shelter requirements at multiple spatial scales. Consistent with our hypothesis, snake detection was biased towards a riparian ecosystem where hollow-bearing tree density was on average nine times greater than adjoining vegetation communities. In contrast, we found that the relative abundance of potential prey was equivalent among vegetation communities (frogs: P = 0.882; geckos: P = 0.306). At the microhabitat scale, snakes selected live hollow-bearing trees that were significantly larger (mean diameter: 74.5 cm ± 3.4, s.e.) than those otherwise available (42.4 ± 1.2 cm, s.e.) and estimated to be on average 111 years old. We recorded temperatures inside tree cavities to investigate whether the preference for live trees might be influenced by temperature buffering. Temperatures inside live trees were up to 16.4 °C below ambient in summer and 13.0 °C above ambient in winter. Temperature buffering was more pronounced in living trees (regression of cavity temperature against ambient, winter: r = −0.621; summer: r = −0.630) compared to dead trees (winter: r = −0.219; summer: r = −0.328), suggesting microhabitat selection may be driven by thermal requirements. Our study demonstrates the important role that mature, live hollow-bearing trees play in habitat selection by the pale-headed snake. It also suggests that the conservation of this species will be difficult in environments where such trees have been depleted due to land management practices. Managing forests for the persistence and recruitment of live hollow-bearing trees must be the primary conservation objective for threatened hollow-dependent fauna globally. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
关键词	Conservation Ecosystems Mammals Vegetation Elapidae Eucalyptus tereticornis Land management practices Relative abundance Riparian ecosystem Thermal requirements Tree cavities Vegetation community Forestry buffering endangered species evergreen tree habitat selection habitat structure hypothesis testing land management management practice microhabitat persistence recruitment (population dynamics)relative abundance riparian vegetation snake Anura Aves Elapidae Eucalyptus tereticornis Gekkonidae Hoplocephalus bitorquatus Mammalia Serpentes Vertebrata
语种	英语
来源机构	Forest Ecology and Management
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/133169
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Shelton M.B.,Phillips S.S.,Goldingay R.L.. Habitat requirements of an arboreal Australian snake (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus) are influenced by hollow abundance in living trees[J]. Forest Ecology and Management,2020,455.
APA	Shelton M.B.,Phillips S.S.,&Goldingay R.L..(2020).Habitat requirements of an arboreal Australian snake (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus) are influenced by hollow abundance in living trees.,455.
MLA	Shelton M.B.,et al."Habitat requirements of an arboreal Australian snake (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus) are influenced by hollow abundance in living trees".455(2020).