农业灌溉渠道等线性基础设施产生物理变化,对栖息地产生负面影响,野生动物种群,社区,和生态系统。开放的灌溉渠道是野生动物的陷阱,可能会影响各种大小的脊椎动物。尽管如此,小渠道受到保护生物学家的关注相对较少。这项研究的目的是分析与灌溉渠道系统不同部分和周围景观特征相关的脊椎动物物种丰富度和死亡率。两年来,我们每月在明渠灌溉系统上进行调查,以通过死亡和活着个体的记录来估计其对脊椎动物的影响。我们使用规范对应分析和卡方检验研究了物种丰富度和死亡率与样带的空间关系,以确定通道和季节性不同结构的可能变化。Further,景观多样性指数用于分析周围栖息地结构和组成对这些参数的重要性。大多数脊椎动物(61%)被发现死亡,小型哺乳动物和爬行动物受影响最大。我们的结果表明,小型脊椎动物的死亡率因物种而异,明渠农业灌溉系统的结构(即,混凝土通道和水闸),季节性(即,湿,anddry),和景观异质性(即,高,中等,和低景观多样性)。明渠灌溉系统对人类景观中的小型脊椎动物种群构成威胁,保护工作应针对保护水体和重组明渠农业灌溉系统,以避免小啮齿动物等物种死亡(M.墨西哥)和爬行动物(C.triseriatus,B.imbricata,和Thamnophisspp.).
Linear infrastructures such as agricultural irrigation channels produce physical changes and negative impacts to habitats, wildlife populations, communities, and ecosystems. Open irrigation channels act as a pitfall for wildlife and can affect
vertebrates of all sizes. Nonetheless, small channels have received relatively little attention by conservation biologists. The objective of this study was to analyze vertebrate species richness and mortality in relation to different sections of an irrigation channel system and the surrounding landscape characteristics. For two years, we conducted monthly surveys along an open-channel irrigation system to estimate its effect on
vertebrates through records of dead and alive individuals. We examined the spatial relation of species richness and mortality with transects using a canonical correspondence analysis and chi-squared tests to determine possible variations in the different structures of the channel and seasonality. Further, a landscape diversity index was used to analyze the importance of surrounding habitat structure and composition on these parameters. Most
vertebrates (61%) were found dead, small mammals and reptiles were the most affected. Our results indicate that mortality of small
vertebrates varies depending on species, structures of the open-channel agricultural irrigation system (i.e., concrete channel and floodgates), seasonality (i.e., wet, and dry), and landscape heterogeneity (i.e., high, medium, and low landscape diversity). The open-channel irrigation system is a threat to populations of small
vertebrates in anthropized landscapes, conservation efforts should be directed at protecting water bodies and restructuring the open-channel agricultural irrigation system to avoid mortality of species such as small rodents (M. mexicanus) and reptiles (C. triseriatus, B. imbricata, and Thamnophis spp.).