Data from: Effects of vegetation density on the diversity of lizards in an area of the Brazilian Cerrado
Data files
Nov 22, 2025 version files 6.25 KB
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data_GLM.csv
1.31 KB
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lizards_abundance_per_site.csv
531 B
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README.md
4.41 KB
Abstract
The Cerrado is a highly threatened biome that harbors a great portion of Brazilian biodiversity, including many endemic species. Such richness may reflect its environmental heterogeneity, which includes different vegetation types (from grasslands to forests). Several endemic species in the Cerrado are strongly associated with open vegetation types. Recent studies have shown that woody encroachment can negatively impact several components of biodiversity. In the present study, we provide information on variation in lizard diversity across different vegetation types in a protected area located in the southern portion of the Cerrado and evaluated the effect of vegetation density on lizard taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity. We predicted that the three aspects of lizard diversity would be negatively affected by vegetation density and that Beta diversity would vary significantly across the vegetation gradient. We confirmed nearly all of our predictions, except for functional diversity, which, contrary to our expectations, was positively influenced by vegetation density. We also found that Beta diversity indices based on both species composition/abundance and phylogenetic features of communities experience a significant turnover across the vegetation density gradient. This study greatly strengthens previous studies that suggest a negative impact of vegetation density (and, consequently, woody encroachment) on lizard diversity. Therefore, managers of protected areas in the Cerrado should consider the use of strategies to avoid woody encroachment, like fire management with prescribed fires.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2z34tmpxf
Description of the data and file structure
Files and variables
Supplementary Figures_FINAL.pdf
Supplementary material that includes figures and tables are not included in the main manuscript.
Figure S1. Phylogenetic tree of lizard species sampled with pitfall traps at the Santa Bárbara Ecological Station. Only species with more than five individuals sampled are included. Colors represent each family. Blue: Gymnophtalmidae; Gold: Teiidae; Orange: Anolidae; Purple: Scincidae.
Figure S2. Shepard plot (or stress plot) to observe the goodness of fit of the data into the NMDS analysis.Figure S3. Half-normal plots with Simulation Envelopes of the best fitted generalized linear models showing the predicted effect of A − NDVI (300 m buffer) on lizard richness; B− NDVI (300 m buffer) on lizard abundance.
Figure S4. Forest plot illustrating 95% CI of models of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity, and LCBD in different scales. Error bar colors represent model’s slope, positive (blue) or negative (red).
Supplementary Tables_FINAL.xlsx
Supplementary tables of the study
Table S1. Data extracted from Oskyrko et al. (2024)
Table S2. Binnary functional data and maximum body mass of lizards species of Santa Bárbara Ecological Station. Data extracted from Oskyrko et al. (2024). Red numbers indicate data obtained in the field.
Table S3. Results for estimates of lizards diversity (Shannon index) at Santa Bárbara Ecological station in each vegetation type based on coverage-based rarefaction curves.
Table S4. General scale model selection table for species richness, abundance, phylogenetic, functional, and beta diversity of lizards sampled with pitfall traps at Santa Bárbara Ecological Station. Rd: Residual deviance, Df: Degrees of freedom, SW: P-value of Shapiro-Wilk test. Numbers in red represent statistically significant results (P < 0.05) or 95% confidence intervals that not included zero.
Table S5. Results of (partial) Mantel tests between taxonomic (both incidence-based and abundance-weighted), functional and phylogenetic pairwise β diversity (βsor and βbray) and its spatial turnover (βsim and βbal) and nestedness (βsne and βgra) components of lizard metacommunities of Santa Bárbara Ecological Station. Numbers in red indicate significant results (P<0.05).
data_GLM.csv
CSV file (Comma-Separated Values) contains all variables used in GLM analyses. Each column represents a different variable:
- Sampling_unit – A set of two 40 m-long pitfall trap lines where lizards were captured.
- Veg_type – The vegetation type class sampled.
- Rich_liz – Total species richness in each sampling unit.
- Abu_liz – Total lizard abundance in each sampling unit.
- NRI_liz – Net Relatedness Index in each sampling unit.
- NTI_liz – Nearest Taxon Index in each sampling unit.
- SESFDis_liz – Standardized Effect Size of Functional Dispersion in each sampling unit.
- SESFric_liz – Standardized Effect Size of Functional Richness in each sampling unit.
- SESFeve_liz – Standardized Effect Size of Functional Evenness in each sampling unit.
- NDVI_100, NDVI_150, NDVI_200 – Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices at different spatial scales in each sampling unit.
- Lat, Lon – Latitude and longitude of each sampling unit.
lizards_abundance_per_site.csv
CSV file (Comma-Separated Values) contains data on lizard abundance per site (species with n > 5).
Code/software
Data Formats
Metadata and Binary Files:
- Excel Files:
- .xlsx/.xls: Utilized for organizing and presenting data summaries.
- .csv: data utilized to perform the analyses.
- Text Files:
- .pdf: May include supplementary figures.
Access information
Table S2, binnary functional data and maximum body mass of lizards species of Santa Bárbara Ecological Station, was extracted from Oskyrko et al. (2024).
- Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. & Du, W. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data, 243.
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-024-03079-5