Theses (M.S.)--Marshall University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains viii, 94 p. Bibliography: p. 92-94.

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of science, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of science, Johannesburg, 2018 / Defining the spatial distributions of species with regards to habitat selection and landscape structure is an important part of biogeography, ecology and conservation research. I investigated reptile occurrence and community structure in two patches of dry forest in north western Madagascar using detection/non-detection data collected on repeated transect surveys for four years. A Bayesian hierarchical occupancy model and multispectral satellite imagery were used to assess the effects of vegetation structure, proximity to human development and edge proximity on the site presence of 37 squamate species in the context of taxonomic family and Threat Status. Mean species richness was highest at sites within a forest patch (23 (4, 30)). Sites with dense green vegetation promoted the highest levels of reptile occupancy among the Chamaeleonidae and Gekkoniidae families (with regression coefficient estimates up to 0.75 (0.12, 1.53)) and all species were more likely to occur at sites closer to the forest patch periphery. The Boidae had the widest 95% CRI for the regression coefficient estimates representing the effects of habitat variables on occupancy, indicating that they are highly variable in their habitat use. The regression coefficient estimates of mean reptile occupancy had 95% credible intervals (CRIs) including zero due to high variability between species. The proximity to roads did not have a statistically significant effect on any of the species, and Uroplatus guentheri was the only species which showed a significant preference for being further from a settlement (0.81 (0.05, 1.77)). The findings demonstrated the importance of using caution when assessing Threat Status at a regional level and suggest that the Red List’s measure of Population Trend may be significantly influenced by imperfect detection / MT 2019

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Many herpetofaunal species are imperiled, and the causes of this are often a synergy of multiple factors. In wetlands specifically, two of the possible determinants of species occurrence and faunal community assemblage are fish presence and wetland permanence, which are not always correlated. Twenty wetlands were sampled in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Florida, USA to observe how wetland herpetofaunal communities vary with fish, wetland permanence and other environmental factors. Herpetofaunal communities with and without fish were significantly different from one another and differences between herpetofaunal communities were primarily due to the contribution of four species of frogs, two generalist ranids and two specialist hylids. Wetland permanence had no observable effect on community structure. Fishless wetlands were significantly more species-rich and possessed higher numbers of individuals even for species that occurred in both fishless and fish wetlands, regardless of their permanence. These findings have implications for wetlands restoration and herpetofaunal conservation. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection