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ECOLOGIA BALKANICA 2009, Vol ECOLOGIA BALKANICA 2009, Vol. 1 November 2009 pp. 27-39 Risks and Opportunities of Urbanization – Structure of Two Populations of the Balkan Wall Lizard Podarcis tauricus (Pallas, 1814) in the City of Plovdiv Ivelin A. Mollov*, Miglena V. Valkanova University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”, Faculty of Biology, Department of Ecology and Environmental Conservation, 24 Tsar Assen Str., 4000 Plovdiv, BULGARIA *E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. The current study analyzes the structure and some features of two urban metapopulations of the Balkan Wall Lizard (Podarcis tauricus (Pallas, 1814)) from Nature Monument (NM) “Mladezhki halm” and Nature Monument “Halm na osvoboditelite” in the city of Plovdiv (South Bulgaria). In both study sites, the Balkan Wall lizard inhabits exclusively the interior of the hills and prefers mainly open areas with rare grass and shrub vegetation. The recorded dominant plant species are not autochthonous for the hills, but gradually displaced with many decorative species, used widely in the gardening and the city parks. The population abundance from both hills is relatively low, with higher values in NM “Mladezhki halm” and generally shows a decrease pattern for the two year period. In the hills of Plovdiv, the Balkan Wall lizard shows a bimodal diurnal and seasonal activity. Both metapopulations showed a sex ratio close to 1:1 with a slight superiority of the females (1:1.29), but with no statistically significant deviation. The age structure of both metapopulations is almost identical - the highest percentage takes the adults, followed by the subadults and juveniles, with no significant deviations from the normal ratio. The possible reasons for the contemporary distribution and population structure of the Balkan Wall lizard are discussed. Historic land use change and its effect on the populations are discussed as well. The main risks for this species in the city of Plovdiv are construction and forestation (destruction of open terrains). Nevertheless, the Balkan Wall lizard seems to have successfully overcome the risks of urbanization and its population seem stable and sustainable. Key words: Podarcis tauricus , metapopulations, urban environment, Plovdiv, Bulgaria © Ecologia Balkanica Union of Scientists in Bulgaria – Plovdiv http://eb.bio.uni-plovdiv.bg University of Plovdiv Publishing House Structure of two populations of the Balkan Wall Lizard Podarcis tauricus … Introduction their unique geomorphologic formations Urbanization is one of the most drastic and certain biodiversity conservation role, changes that can be imposed on an three of them were protected by the law environment, fragmenting the land into a and were declared as “nature landmarks”, mosaic of patches of differing size and according to the Bulgarian legislation. shape that are surrounded by the urban The aim of the current study is to matrix - cleared areas, roads, buildings and analyze the structure and some other modified habitats (DICKMAN , 1987). characteristics of two local metapopu- Most of these patches are small in size and lations of the Balkan Wall lizard ( Podarcis quite isolated from other “green areas”. tauricus ) from NM “Mladezhki halm” and Urban areas offer opportunities for NM “Halm na osvoboditelite” in Plovdiv interesting case studies to the ecologists, and present data about the species’ because they are fragmented portions of distribution, habitat selectivity, diurnal and natural and semi-natural zones inside a seasonal activity, abundance, age and sex very anthropogenic influenced area ratio in urban environment. (RUGIERO , 2004). Reptile population responses to urban Material and methods development are perhaps the least The study was conducted between understood in comparison to all other March and October 2007 and 2008 on two vertebrates in urban environments hills (NM “Mladezhki halm” and NM (GERMAINE & WAKELING , 2001). Although “Halm na osvoboditelite”) in the city of ecologists have traditionally paid little Plovdiv (South Bulgaria). attention to ‘urban’ species, much can be Study area. NM “Mladezhki halm” (“The learnt from their populations that inhabit hill of youth”) is situated on 36.2 ha of land urban habitats (DAVIS , 1976). The common (285.5 m a.s.l.) and NM “Halm na species are suitable objects for studying the osvoboditelite” (“The hill of Liberators”) is effects of urbanization, such as, for situated on 22.0 ha of land (265 m a.s.l.). example, some lizard species (JELLINEK et Both nature monuments are situated in the al. , 2004). The Balkan Wall lizard Podarcis centre of the city (Fig. 1) and by origin they tauricus (Pallas, 1814) is one of the most are syenite hills formed during the common lizards in Bulgaria, inhabiting Palaeogene. Both hills are declared for mainly open, dry grassy or rocky habitats protected territories with Regulation № covered by scarce vegetation below 600 m RD466 from 22.12.1995 by Ministry of a.s.l., even anthropogenic terrains Environment and Waters (MOEW), with (BISERKOV et al., 2007). Almost everywhere the aim to protect the natural landscape in the country the species’ populations are and the unique geomorphologic formations dense and numerous (BESHKOV & NANEV , (DIMITROV et al. , 2002). 2002), which makes it suitable indicator Abundance estimates. For calculating the species for studying the effect of abundances of the populations we used a urbanization on its populations. line transect method (SUTHERLAND , 2000). Within the city of Plovdiv there are This method assumes 100% detectability in several “green areas”, besides the urban the center of the line transect, which is parks, of low conservation value, being achievable in fairly open habitats, which heavily visited by people. The hills of are present in the hills of Plovdiv. Eight Plovdiv are green areas which resemble randomly chosen transects (random natural sites, surrounded by heavily samples), each 1000 m long, were made urbanized land (MOLLOV , 2005). Because of through each of the studied areas. 28 Ivelin A. Mollov, Miglena V. Valkanova Fig. 1. Location of the two urban protected areas within the city of Plovdiv A – NM “Mladezki halm”, B – NM “Halm na osvoboditelite”. Recording distances were covered by deviations from the normal sex and age means of GPS receiver. The abundance in ratio were compared using the χ 2-test and this case is considered as total number of the tail loss frequency data was compared individuals on the studied area per line using the Mann-Whitney U-test for transect (TURPIE , 1995). independent samples. Both tests are For each observed specimen we suitable when the data is not normally recorded data on date, time, place of distributed (FOWLER et al. , 1998). For the observation and surrounding vegetation. comparison of the abundances we used t- The lizards’ sex was determined based on test with normalized data, using natural the morphological characteristics given by logarithm - ln(x+1) (FOWLER & COHEN , TZANKOV (2007) and BISERKOV et al. (2007). 1995). For statistically significant results we Based on the body size (visually and by considered those with p<0.05 [α=5%]. measuring), we established three age Distribution and spatial data. The groups: adult (male and female), subadult distribution maps were generated from the and juvenile. Data about the condition of collected GPS data for the two-year period, the lizard’s tail (absent or regenerated) was using the “MapSource v. 6.12” software also collected (STRIJBOSCH et al. , 1989). (GARMIN LTD ., 2007) with electronic Data analysis. The statistical processing topographic map “BG Topo Maps v. 2.12” of the data was performed with the (KOTZEV , 2005) and “DIVA-GIS Annapurna software “Statistica v. 7.0” (STAT SOFT INC ., v. 6.0” (ROJAS & HIJMANS , 2008). 2004), using descriptive statistics. The 29 Structure of two populations of the Balkan Wall Lizard Podarcis tauricus … Results are almost identical, so we are discussing Distribution. The overall distribution of them together. We identified the following both metapopulations of Podarcis tauricus dominant plant taxa: Gleditschia triacantos, for the whole period of study in both study Robinia pseudoacacia, Magnolia denudate, sites is presented in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. Picea pungens, Criptomeria japonica, Abies Habitat characteristics. At the two study cephalonica and Abies alba from the trees and sites, the Balkan Wall lizard inhabits Crataegus monogyna, Paliurus spina-christi, mainly open rocky areas with short grass- Cornus mas, Prunus spinosa, Rosa canina and shrub vegetation. The habitats on both hills Forsythia suspense from the shrubs. Table 1. Abundance (individuals/1000 linear meters) of both metapopulations of Podarcis tauricus in Plovdiv for the two-year period. Legend: Mean – mean abundance, CI – confidence interval (95%), SD – standard deviation. Site 2007 2008 Mean CI SD Mean CI SD NM “Mladezhki halm” 3.12 -0.70÷6.95 4.58 3.00 0.20÷5.79 3.33 NM “Halm na osvoboditelite” 1.87 1.05÷2.70 0.99 0.62 -0.14÷1.39 0.92 Abundance. The abundance of the broken tails and 2.04% with regenerated population at NM “Mladezki halm” is tails and at NM “Halm na osvoboditelite”, higher, compared with the abundance of 15% were with broken tails and 10% with the population at NM “Halm na regenerated tails. osvoboditelite”, but there are no statistically significant differences (t-test, Table 2. Diurnal activity of both p>0.05). There is also a visible pattern of metapopulations of Podarcis tauricus decrease in the population abundances on in Plovdiv for the whole period of study both hills for the two year period (Table 1), but only the population from NM “Halm NM NM “Halm na osvoboditelite” has statistically Time “Mladezhki na osvobo- significant differences (t-test, t=2.57, zones p=0.02). Halm” ditelite” Diurnal and seasonal activity. The Balkan Before 8:00 - - Wall lizard shows a bimodal daily activity 8:00-9:00 1 1 pattern, with one peak in the morning and 9:00-10:00 4 1 second in the afternoon (Table 2). The 10:00-11:00 6 2 seasonal activity also shows a bimodal 11:00-12:00 6 4 activity pattern (Fig.
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