Lizard abundance
Between 2016-2018, mark-resight surveys were conducted across 40 plots
spanning 7 total sites in Jamaica, and 58 plots spanning 13 total sites
in the Dominican Republic (on the island of Hispaniola), as described in
(Frishkoff et al. 2019, Frishkoff et al. 2022). Plots were located
either in forest or human-modified habitat, and sites varied in
elevation and forest type within each island so as to broadly represent
the full range of communities present. At each location, multiple 15m
radius plots was surveyed for all anole species for two hours during the
day and two hours at night for three consecutive days. During each
survey, an observer conducted a standardized survey walk around the plot
and recorded species identity. Over the course of the six survey
sessions in each plot, all lizards observed were marked with diluted,
non-toxic, latex-based paint using an Idico “Duz-All” paint sprayer,
allowing observers to identify resighted versus new individuals (Heckel
and Roughgarden 1979).
We estimated species richness and abundance of the anole community in
each plot in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica using a mark-resight
model, which accounts for variation in detection probability,
differences in observers, and the time of day that the surveys were
conducted (Frishkoff et al. 2019, Frishkoff et al. 2022). When
estimating abundance, the model also incorporated the effects of
temperature, precipitation, canopy cover, and interaction terms. The
mark-resight model was conducted using a Bayesian framework with JAGS (v
4.2.0) in R (v 3.4.4). For more detailed model descriptions see
Frishkoff et al. 2019 and Frishkoff et al. 2022.
Plot-level abundance was obtained by summing the estimated number of
individuals for each anole species along each iteration of the
posterior, and then using the posterior mean to summarize the
distribution. Likewise, species richness was obtained by summing the
number of species present in the plot along each iteration of the
posterior (all species with abundance of 1 or greater), and again taking
the mean of the posterior as a point estimate.