Recovery of frog and lizard communities following primary habitat alteration in Mizoram, Northeast India

摘要: Community recovery following primary habitat alteration can provide tests for various hypotheses in ecology and conservation biology. Prominent among these are questions related to the manner rate of community assembly after perturbation. Here we use space-for-time substitution analyse frog lizard along two gradients slash burn agriculture (jhum) Mizoram, Northeast India. One gradient undergoes natural succession mature tropical rainforest, while other involves plantation jhum fallows with teak Tectona grandis monoculture. Frog communities accumulated species steadily during succession, attaining characteristics similar those from forest 30 years regeneration. Lizards showed higher turnover lower augmentation relative frogs. Niche based classification identified a number guilds, some which contained both frogs lizards. Successional change richness was due increase guilds as well per guild. Phylogenetic structure increased guilds. Communities on hand, did not show any sign chronosere age. Factor analysis revealed sets variables that independently determined changes guild composition recovery. The timescale comparable reported by previous studies different faunal groups regions. Both converged attributes vegetation being driven deterministic, nonlinear characteristics. On very little seen even relatively old plantation. In general, tree monocultures unlikely support combined effect shortened cultivation cycles forestry could result landscapes without forest. Lack source pools genetic diversity will then lead altered reassembly. It is therefore important value mosaics containing patches successional secondary habitats be taken into account.