Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Habitat Destruction By Collectors Associated With Decreased Abundance Of Rock-Dwelling Lizards, Matthew J. Goode, William C. Horrace, Michael J. Sredl, Jeffrey M. Howland

Economics - All Scholarship

Declines in biodiversity caused by habitat loss have been well documented on large spatial scales, however, effects of habitat loss on small scales have received little attention. Some common methods of reptile collection, primarily for commercial harvest, result in destruction of cracks, crevices, and other cool, moist microhabitats in desert rock outcrops. We developed a method for identifying habitat destruction associated with reptile collecting. We surveyed lightly and heavily disturbed areas near Phoenix, Arizona to determine if microhabitat loss caused by collectors was associated with decreased relative abundance of reptiles. Of four diurnal lizard species studied, relative abundance of two …