Date
2010
Abstract
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect lizard communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on lizards at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on lizard communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these lizard communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple lizard species, especially the lesser earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata). At the landscape-scale, the total number of lizards was two-times greater on the where both prairie dogs and banner-tailed kangaroo rats co-occurred than where only kangaroo rats occurred.
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/1928/30038.1
Other Identifier
SEV173
Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) Identifier
knb-lter-sev.173.87391
Document Type
Dataset
Rights
Data Policies: This dataset is released to the public and may be freely downloaded. Please keep the designated Contact person informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation or collaboration with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset must include proper acknowledgement of the Sevilleta LTER. Datasets must be cited as in the example provided. A copy of any publications using these data must be supplied to the Sevilleta LTER Information Manager. By downloading any data you implicitly acknowledge the LTER Data Policy (http://www.lternet.edu/data/netpolicy.html).
Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/2b6414c006c57ce0b9c39af52774e5d8
Temporal coverage
2000-05-01 - 2002-08-01
DOI
doi:10.6073/pasta/2b6414c006c57ce0b9c39af52774e5d8
Permanent URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/2b6414c006c57ce0b9c39af52774e5d8
Recommended Citation
Davidson, Ana; Lightfoot, David (2010): Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico: Landscape Plot Lizard Data (2001-2002). Long Term Ecological Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/2b6414c006c57ce0b9c39af52774e5d8
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knb-lter-sev.173.87391-provenance.xml (4 kB)
Show provenance metadata
knb-lter-sev.173.87391-report.html (26 kB)
Show original LTER Network Data Portal ingest report
sev173_pdoglizardplot_01312006.txt (37 kB)
Data in TXT format
Comments
This dataset was originally published on the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Data Portal, https://portal.lternet.edu, and potentially via other repositories or portals as described. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the source data package is doi:10.6073/pasta/2b6414c006c57ce0b9c39af52774e5d8, and may be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/2b6414c006c57ce0b9c39af52774e5d8. Metadata and files included in this record mirror as closely as possible the source data and documentation, with the provenance metadata and quality report generated by the LTER portal reproduced here as '*-provenance.xml' and *-report.html' files, respectively.