Monitor Lizard Should Be Regarded As 'Ecosystem Engineer,' Researchers Say 21 December 2020

Monitor lizard should be regarded as 'ecosystem engineer,' researchers say 21 December 2020

species, the Gould's monitor lizard. The team had recently discovered that the lizards are unique in that they lay their eggs as deep as 13 feet, easily the deepest vertebrate nests on earth. They loosen the soil, creating warm, moist conditions, which are ideal for laying eggs and trapping viable seeds and fruits. But now, the researchers have discovered that the burrows hosted a wide range of animals, including reptiles, frogs, insects and even marsupial mammals. The team found 747 individual species of 28 types of vertebrates.

The timing of the research revealed clues as to why certain species utilized the warrens. For example, throughout the winter dry season, the researchers found hibernating frogs using the burrows to Sean Doody, assistant professor and graduate director maintain their body moisture. During one of integrative biology at the USF St. Petersburg campus, studies the nesting biology of the monitor lizard. Credit: excavation, Doody and his team discovered 418 University of South Florida individual frogs in a single warren.

"The finding is significant as it shows that nesting warrens provide critical shelter and other resources Ten years of research led by the University of for the small animal community," Doody said. "The South Florida has revealed that a monitor lizard invasive cane toad is decimating the monitor lizards should be regarded as an "ecosystem engineer," a in some areas, meaning that these nesting rarity for reptiles. Tortoises and sea turtles are the warrens, which are re-used year after year, will only reptiles considered to be ecosystem disappear. This can impact the relative number of engineers, a term used to describe organisms that predators and prey, which can have unexpected have a great impact on their environment based on consequences for the ecosystem, such as an their ability to create, modify, maintain or destroy a overabundance of one species at the cost of habitat. Sean Doody, assistant professor and another, which in other systems has threatened graduate director of integrative biology at the USF species with local extinction. St. Petersburg campus, discovered that while a related species is considered invasive in the United The arrival of the toxic cane toad emphasized the States, in Australia, small animal communities rely extent of the monitor lizard's impact on the food on the monitor lizards' burrow system, called a web. In studies conducted between 2009 and 2017, warren, using it as a habitat, a place to forage for Doody's research team uncovered abandoned food and nesting. burrows and an increase in the lizard's prey, including smaller lizards, snakes, turtles and birds. In his study published in Ecology, Doody and his Australian researchers and natural resource Australian collaborators investigated the nesting managers have been unable to successfully control biology of the Yellow-Spotted monitor lizard, which cane toads. can measure nearly five feet, and its smaller, sister Doody is now expanding his research to include the

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perentie, another large monitoring lizard that likely nests at great depths in the Australian desert, to see if it too should be deemed an ecological engineer. His team is also looking at how climate warming will impact the facilitation of these animal communities.

Provided by University of South Florida APA citation: Monitor lizard should be regarded as 'ecosystem engineer,' researchers say (2020, December 21) retrieved 1 October 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2020-12-lizard-regarded- ecosystem.html

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