Long-term monitoring of lizards and geckos in Doñana 2005-2021

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 405 records.

2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Andreu A C, Arribas R, Román I, Díaz-Delgado R, Bustamante J, Márquez-Ferrando R (2023). Long-term monitoring of lizards and geckos in Doñana 2005-2021. Version 1.11. Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC). Samplingevent dataset. https://doi.org/10.15470/ki0cn7

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 5625910c-6d03-4879-8046-13edc1128b95.  Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Spain.

Keywords

Samplingevent; occurrence; other.; reptiles; transect; Long-term monitoring; ICTS-RBD. Infraestructura Científico Técnica Singular de la Reserva Biológica de Doñana.

Contacts

Geographic Coverage

The study area covers the Doñana Protected Area. This includes seven ecosystems types (coastal waters, beach, dunes, forest, shrubland, sandy lakes and marshes) and 21 habitat types, 11 of them of high conservation importance – such as the Bulrush and Glasswort marsh, floodplain lakes, sandy lakes, grassland ecotones, Cork-Oak forest, shrubland, coastal Juniper forest and dunes.

Taxonomic Coverage

Each individual is identified to the species level whenever possible, otherwise it is recorded as unidentified.

Temporal Coverage

Project Data

The aim of this project is to provide information about the evolution of the conservation status of Doñana. To do that, it has been designed a monitoring program of the dynamic of natural processes and the distribution and abundance of species and communities. This monitoring is generating time series of data which is being used to analyzed long-term trends.

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

The monitoring of the reptile community in Doñana was initiated in 2005 as part of the Monitoring Program of Natural Resources and Processes. The aim was to obtain a temporal and continuous series of data in the abundance of lizards and geckos species and analyze the trends to detect changes in their populations. The records are collected annually between 2005-2021 by members of the monitoring team which perform 7 sampling transects in different habitats (dunes and Mediterranean vegetation) three times per year in the periods when reptile activity is high (March-June and September-October), with good environmental conditions (temperature between 17 and 25 ºC and absence of rain).

Method step description:

1. Lizard and gecko counts are collected annually by members of the monitoring team three times per year in the periods when reptile activity is high (two samplings in March-June and one sampling in September-October), with good environmental conditions (temperature between 17 and 25 ºC and absence of rain or strong wind conditions). The method used to record the presence and abundance of lizard and gecko species (kilometric index: number of individuals/km) are the transect censuses. Individuals are visually searched along seven transects (linear or circular) that are carried out by one trained person on foot. Each transect have an established length, but the length surveyed is different (averaged 1858 ± 51.86 meters). Each transect is located in dunes or mediterranean vegetation habitats, representative of Doñana ecosystems. Two transects runs through wooden footpaths (within the Natural Park and five transects are placed on sand-trails (4 within the National Park and one in Natural Park which contains a small part of wooden footpath). Linear transects have been surveyed in the outward track direction and after waiting 15 minutes it has been again performed on the way back. This information is valid to account for species presence in the area. However, we suggest to choose the first survey performed for statistical analyses that require independence of samples. Eight species can be potentially observed during the samplings: Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus), Common Wall Gecko (Tarentola mauritanica), Fringe-fingered Lizard (Acanthodactylus erythrurus), Algerian Psammodromus (Psammodromus algirus), Western Psammodromus (Psammodromus occidentalis), Carbonell's wall lizard (Podarcis carbonelli), Andalusian wall lizard (Podarcis vaucheri), Ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus). Other reptile species present in Doñana have not been included in this study as the detection with this method is very low. For instance, to detect species with a fossorial behaviour (the Mediterranean Worm Lizard Blanus cinereus) or those cryptic as adders (Vipera latastei), it is required larger investment of survey which consist in looking under vegetation, burrows or logs (there are not stones in Doñana). Data recorded during the surveys include weather description (cloud cover, temperature, rain, or wind speed), species identification, number of individuals, sex and life stage of the reptiles when possible, as well as time and georeferenced data of the observation. Between 2005-2007 data was registered in Excel file and since 2008 data is recorded with the app CyberTracker (see protocol). The protocol used has been supervised by herpetological researchers and the data have been validated by the members who performed the transects. Díaz Paniagua, C., & Rivas Carballo, R. 1987. Datos sobre actividad de anfibios y pequeños reptiles de Doñana (Huelva, España). Mediterránea. Serie de Estudios Biológicos, N. 9 (marzo 1987); pp. 15-27. Enciclopedia virtual de los vertebrados españoles. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. https://www.vertebradosibericos.org. McDiarmid, R. W., Foster, M. S., Guyer, C., Chernoff, N., & Gibbons, J. W. (Eds.). (2012). Reptile biodiversity: standard methods for inventory and monitoring. Univ of California Press. Román, J., Ruiz, G., Delibes, M. & Revilla, E. 2006. Factores ambientales condicionantes de la presencia de la lagartija de Carbonell, Podarcis carbonelli (Pérez–Mellado, 1981) en la comarca de Doñana. Animal Biodiversity and Conservation 29.1: 73-82. Valverde, J.A. 1967. Estructura de una comunidad mediterránea de vertebrados terrestres. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Vol. 1. Madrid.

Additional Metadata