Distribution Pattern And Nested Analysis Of Amphibian And Reptile Communities In Fragmented Habitats Of The Thousand Island Lake Region

Habitat fragmentation is a main cause for the loss of biological diversity. Thousand Island Lake is an ideal place to study the influence of habitat fragmentation on the structure of animal communities. In summers from2009to2011, we used line-transect methods to survey amphibians and reptiles on23islands on Thousand Island Lake. Combining with survey data of plant species and habitat variables collected by GIS technology, we used the "BINMATNEST (binary matrix nestedness temperature calculator)" software and the spearman correlation to examine whether amphibians and reptiles followed the nested subsets and its influencing factors. The results showed that amphibians and reptiles were significantly nested, and that the island area and habitat type were significantly associated with their nested ranks. Also, we investigated the species-area relationship of amphibians and reptiles by using Statistica8.0software, and found that small island effect exists in amphibians and reptiles’ communities. Therefore, to effectively protect amphibians and reptiles in Thousand Islands Lake region, we should pay prior attention to the islands with larger areas and more habitat types.