Disturbances are critical for maintaining environmental heterogeneity and biodiversity across landscapes. Hurricanes represent a common disturbance in the Caribbean Sea. These storms are predicted to become more frequent and severe as climate shifts. Understanding how island communities respond to disturbances is critical to their conservation. We surveyed Virgin Islands National Park located on the island of St. John in the Caribbean Sea in 2016 and 2018 to evaluate prolonged herpetofauna community response and resistance to hurricanes. These surveys occurred in March 2016, and June 2018, before and after the 2017 hurricane season, when hurricanes Irma and Maria struck St. John. Using visual encounter surveys, vocalisation surveys, and opportunistic encounters, we surveyed trails within the park through five landscape cover types pre- and post-hurricane. We used linear regression to determine differences in diversity and species richness among landscape cover types and between pre- and post-hurricane surveys and non-metric multidimensional scaling to observe associations among species and landscape cover types pre- and post-hurricane surveys. We determined that there were no significant changes in landscape cover and herpetofauna community associations before and after the 2017 hurricane season, indicating that the herpetofauna communities of Virgin Islands National Park are well adapted to hurricane-related disturbance.

中文翻译：

---

在维尔京群岛国家公园，爬虫群落对飓风厄玛和玛丽亚的反应

干扰对于维持整个景观的环境异质性和生物多样性至关重要。飓风是加勒比海的常见干扰。随着气候的变化，预计这些风暴将变得更加频繁和严重。了解岛屿社区如何应对干扰对它们的保护至关重要。我们于 2016 年和 2018 年对位于加勒比海圣约翰岛的维尔京群岛国家公园进行了调查，以评估长期的爬虫群落反应和对飓风的抵抗力。这些调查发生在 2016 年 3 月和 2018 年 6 月，即 2017 年飓风季节前后，当时飓风艾尔玛和玛丽亚袭击了圣约翰。使用视觉接触调查、发声调查和机会主义接触，我们通过飓风前后的五种景观覆盖类型调查了公园内的小径。我们使用线性回归来确定景观覆盖类型之间以及飓风前后调查之间的多样性和物种丰富度差异，并使用非度量多维尺度来观察飓风前后调查中物种和景观覆盖类型之间的关联。我们确定，在 2017 年飓风季节之前和之后，景观覆盖和爬虫群落关联没有显着变化，表明维尔京群岛国家公园的爬虫群落很好地适应了飓风相关的干扰。我们使用线性回归来确定景观覆盖类型之间以及飓风前后调查之间的多样性和物种丰富度差异，并使用非度量多维尺度来观察飓风前后调查中物种和景观覆盖类型之间的关联。我们确定，在 2017 年飓风季节前后，景观覆盖和爬虫群落关联没有显着变化，表明维尔京群岛国家公园的爬虫群落很好地适应了飓风相关的干扰。我们使用线性回归来确定景观覆盖类型之间以及飓风前后调查之间的多样性和物种丰富度差异，并使用非度量多维尺度来观察飓风前后调查中物种和景观覆盖类型之间的关联。我们确定，在 2017 年飓风季节前后，景观覆盖和爬虫群落关联没有显着变化，表明维尔京群岛国家公园的爬虫群落很好地适应了飓风相关的干扰。