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The densest terrestrial vertebrate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2001

GORDON H. RODDA ,
GAD PERRY ,
RENÉE J. RONDEAU  and
JAMES LAZELL
GORDON H. RODDA
Affiliation:
USGS Midcontinent Ecological Science Center, 4512 McMurry Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado 80525 USA
GAD PERRY
Affiliation:
Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA Present address: Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin USA.
RENÉE J. RONDEAU
Affiliation:
Colorado Natural Heritage Program, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
JAMES LAZELL
Affiliation:
The Conservation Agency, Jamestown, Rhode Island USA
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Abstract

An understanding of the abundance of organisms is central to understanding ecology, but many population density estimates are unrepresentative because they were obtained from study areas chosen for the high abundance of the target species. For example, from a pool of 1072 lizard density estimates that we compiled from the literature, we sampled 303 estimates and scored each for its assessment of the degree to which the study site was representative. Less than half (45%) indicated that the study area was chosen to be representative of the population or habitat. An additional 15% reported that individual plots or transects were chosen randomly, but this often indicated only that the sample points were located randomly within a study area chosen for its high abundance of the target species. The remainder of the studies either gave no information or specified that the study area was chosen because the focal species was locally abundant.

Keywords

absolute population densityBritish Virgin Islandscommunity ecologygeckosleaf litterlizardsremoval samplingSphaerodactylus macrolepis
Type
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , March 2001 , pp. 331 - 338
Copyright
2001 Cambridge University Press

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