Publication Date:
2001-11-17
Description:
We document the decimation and recovery of the commonest lizard species, Anolis sagrei, on 66 islands in the Bahamas that were directly hit by Hurricane Floyd in September 1999. Before the hurricane, an island's area was a better predictor of the occurrence of A. sagrei than was its altitude. Immediately after, altitude was a better predictor: Apparently all lizards on islands lower than about 3 meters maximum elevation perished in the storm surge. After about 1 year, area again became the better predictor. By 19 months after the hurricane, A. sagrei populations occurred on 88% of the islands they formerly occupied. Recovery occurred via overwater colonization and propagation from eggs that survived inundation, mechanisms that were enhanced by larger island area. Thus, natural processes first destroyed and then quickly restored a highly regular species-area distribution.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Schoener, T W -- Spiller, D A -- Losos, J B -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2001 Nov 16;294(5546):1525-8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. twschoener@ucdavis.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11711674" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Altitude
;
Animals
;
Bahamas
;
Conservation of Natural Resources
;
*Disasters
;
*Ecosystem
;
Geography
;
*Lizards/physiology
;
Ovum/physiology
;
Population Density
;
Population Dynamics
;
Reproduction
;
Time Factors
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
