Survey of the Relationship of Vegetation with Lizard Diversity, Evenness, Richness and Abundance in the Sabzevar Region

This survey was undertaken during seven months (March – October) in 2007 in the Sabzevar region. The lizards were captured on seven one-ha plots (100m×100m), based on vegetation change. The lizards were sampled using two the first consisted of padding and the second sampling method was accomplished using pitfall trapping. For the latter, twenty pitfall traps were established in each plot and were placed in a random-systematic design within a plot. Overall, we captured 151 specimens belonging of four familes, eight genera and 12 species. For measuring the diversity we used the Shannon-Wiener, N1, Simpson and Hill indices and, for measuring evenness, we used the Camargo, Simpson and Smith and Wilson indices. Inaddition, we used the Rarefaction Method for equating data and measuring species richness. Finally, with regard to the results obtained by the different indices we found that, the relationship between crown coverage and species diversity, evenness, richness and abundance has a positive correlation. For the diversity indices, these were: Shannon-Wiener (r=0.84, R2=0.70), N1 (r=0.65, R2=0.42), Hill (r=0.81, R2=0.65), Simpson (r=0.82, R2=0.67). For the evenness indices: Simpson(r=0.3, R2=0.01), Smith and Wilson (r=0.5, R2=0.25) and Camargo (r=0.36, R2=0.13). In addition, another positive correlation was shown between crown coverage and species abundance (r=0.97, R2=0.93) and species richness (r=0.77, R2=0.6).