A trophic-based approach to the conservation biology of rattlesnakes: linking landscape disturbance to rattlesnake populations

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Rattlesnakes are a group of North American snakes that are especially threatened by human activities. In the northern Intermountain West, rattlesnakes are threatened by widespread landscape disturbance that is converting native sagebrush steppe ecosystems to ecosystems dominated by invasive plants. The authors developed an approach to studying the effects of landscape-scale disturbance on rattlesnakes based on trophic relationships. They studied Great Basin Rattlesnakes (Crotalus oreganus lutosus) in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem that is in various stages of being converted to grasslands. Specifically, they studied how substrate, vegetation, and prey vary among areas with different levels of disturbance. They also studied how variation in substrate and vegetation influence prey availability and how prey availability influences weight gain in snakes. They found that disturbed areas were characterized by less biological crust, more bare soil, less shrub cover, more grass cover, lower shrub heights, and prey communities that had lower species richness, abundance, and biomass. In addition, disturbed areas had lower proportions of larger prey items. Telemetered rattlesnakes using disturbed areas gained less weight than snakes using undisturbed areas. Habitat characteristics typical of undisturbed sites best predicted high prey biomass, and as prey biomass increased so did snake weight gain. Results support the idea that landscape disturbance is influencing rattlesnake populations by altering trophic interactions. This approach should be considered when studying the conservation biology of rattlesnakes because it has important implications for understanding how human activities affect snake populations.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology

Note that this the conference was held in January 2005 and the volume was published in 2008.

Note also that this article is really a chapter in a book (which has been refereed), but if we use the Book template here, there are no fields for Symposium info (the conference location becomes publisher location, for instance)