Comparison of the herpetological diversity between different habitats and ecosystems in Southern Namibia

Bc. Germán Franco Polo

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Increasing concern about the status and future of the world‟s biodiversity in the face of human-induced changes on land use and climate has focused attention on the need to mitigate the negative effects that these changes could have and protect nature. One of the elements to take into account in order to measure the biodiversity in an area is the distribution of the species that may be present in that area. Our knowledge about the distributions of a wide variety of organisms is improving constantly, in turn aiding us to take wise decisions in order to conserve and protect biodiversity. Nevertheless, not all groups have been studied with the same effort. Reptiles have been historically ignored in such issues, being one of the most punished groups by human indifference. This study focuses on comparing reptile diversity between habitats in two adjacent private areas, KumKum and Pelgrimrust, in southern Namibia, part of the arid Nama Karoo biome. To achieve our goals, a variety of sampling methods, both active and passive, were carried out in the different habitats of the study area in order to obtain an accurate depiction of the reptile community. In order to analyse the data obtained from the fieldwork, various parameters, estimators and diversity indices were calculated to provide the pertinent results using EstimateS and PAST software. During our fieldwork we were able to record 31 species distributed among the different habitats of our study area. Of the species recorded 15 were found only in one of the natural habitats (not considering Anthropic), being considered specialists, the rest of species were found in at least two habitats, being considered generalists. Most of these species lack an IUCN assessment. After calculating the diversity indices and effective numbers for the different habitats we observe that sandy plain habitat stands out, having twice the diversity as the rest of habitats. The results of the Jaccard index reflect higher similarity between sandy plain and rocky plain than between the other habitats.

Keywords

Nama Karoo, Reptiles, Sandy Plain, Estimators, Sampling Methods

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 14. 5. 2020

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Francisco Ceacero Herrador, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / Wildlife Management in the Tropics and Subtropics