Abstract If combined with anthropogenic disturbances and global climatic change, hurricanes may lead to major effects on animal populations and assemblages. The combined effects of cumulative natural and human disturbances on vertebrates have been little studied. There is evidence that herpetofaunal assemblages are sensitive in species richness, abundance, and diversity to anthropogenic and natural disturbances, or to their interaction. In the Pacific coast of Jalisco, Mexico, we aimed to evaluate the cumulative effects of hurricanes Jova (2011) and Patricia (2015) on herpetofaunal assemblages along tropical dry forest successional stages by comparing before and after the hurricanes. We conducted a long-term survey (2009 to 2018) on anuran, lizard and snake populations within five dry forest successional stages (from 0 to > 50 years after forest clearance), including the following: active pastures, early forests, young forests, intermediate forests, and old-growth forests as experimental controls. We hypothesized that cumulative effects of hurricanes will result in a general pattern of a decrease in abundance, richness and diversity, and an increase in evenness of anurans, lizards and snakes. We also expected that herpetofaunal diversity will decrease and evenness will increase in those stages with higher vegetation complexity, such as old-growth forest (OGF), and an increase in similarity and evenness in herpetofaunal assemblages in all successional stages. Overall, the abundance of anurans, lizards and snakes significantly decreased after hurricanes, but only for lizards and anurans the interaction of successional stage-hurricane was significant. Furthermore, species richness and diversity increased for lizards and decreased for snakes after hurricanes landed. Although, the pattern of anuran species richness among successional stages was similar after hurricanes, the richness in OGF markedly diminished after hurricanes. Interestingly our results showed that tropical dry secondary forests, under the impact of low intensity hurricanes, might function as buffers that promote herpetofauna resilience. However, cumulative effects of hurricanes resulted in a homogenization tendency among successional stages, suggesting a negative effect for ecosystem functioning. The changes in the buffering role of secondary forests highlights the importance of these ecosystems for conserving biodiversity in times when hurricane disturbances are increasing in frequency and intensity. Overall, we discuss how the complex interactions between human and natural disturbances such as hurricanes might be a factor that contributes to maintain biotic diversity in anthropic landscapes of tropical dry forests.

中文翻译：

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高强度飓风对热带干旱森林时间序列爬虫群落的累积影响

摘要 如果与人为干扰和全球气候变化相结合，飓风可能会对动物种群和组合产生重大影响。很少有人研究累积的自然和人为干扰对脊椎动物的综合影响。有证据表明，爬行动物组合在物种丰富度、丰度和多样性方面对人为和自然干扰或它们的相互作用很敏感。在墨西哥哈利斯科州的太平洋沿岸，我们旨在通过比较飓风前后的情况，评估飓风 Jova（2011）和 Patricia（2015）对热带干燥森林演替阶段沿线爬行动物群落的累积影响。我们对五个干旱森林演替阶段（从 0 到 > 森林清除后 50 年），包括以下：作为实验对照的活跃牧场、早期森林、幼龄林、中级林和老林。我们假设飓风的累积影响将导致无尾目、蜥蜴和蛇的数量、丰富度和多样性减少，而均匀度增加的一般模式。我们还预计，在植被复杂性较高的那些阶段，如原始森林（OGF），爬行动物多样性将减少，均匀度将增加，而在所有演替阶段，爬行动物组合的相似性和均匀度将增加。总体而言，飓风过后无尾目、蜥蜴和蛇类的数量显着减少，但只有蜥蜴和无尾目动物的演替阶段-飓风相互作用显着。此外，飓风登陆后，蜥蜴的物种丰富度和多样性增加，而蛇的物种丰富度和多样性减少。尽管飓风过后不同演替阶段的无尾目物种丰富度模式相似，但飓风过后OGF的丰富度明显下降。有趣的是，我们的结果表明，在低强度飓风的影响下，热带干燥的次生林可能起到缓冲作用，促进爬行动物的恢复。然而，飓风的累积效应导致演替阶段之间的同质化趋势，表明对生态系统功能产生负面影响。次生林缓冲作用的变化突显了这些生态系统在飓风干扰频率和强度增加时保护生物多样性的重要性。全面的，