Environmental drivers of tropical forest snake phenology: Insights from citizen science

Letízia M G Jesus; Jhonny J M Guedes; Mario R Moura; Renato N Feio; Henrique C Costa

doi:10.1002/ece3.10305

Environmental drivers of tropical forest snake phenology: Insights from citizen science

Ecol Evol. 2023 Jul 23;13(7):e10305. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10305. eCollection 2023 Jul.

Authors

Letízia M G Jesus^{1

2}, Jhonny J M Guedes³, Mario R Moura^{4

5}, Renato N Feio¹, Henrique C Costa^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde Universidade Federal de Viçosa Viçosa Brazil.
² Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade e Conservação da Natureza, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora Juiz de Fora Brazil.
³ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Departamento de Ecologia, Campus Samambaia Universidade Federal de Goiás Goiânia Brazil.
⁴ Departamento de Biologia Animal Universidade Estadual de Campinas Campinas Brazil.
⁵ Departamento de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal da Paraíba Areia Brazil.
⁶ Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora Juiz de Fora Brazil.

Abstract

Museum specimens and citizen science initiatives are valuable sources of information on how anthropogenic activities affect biodiversity and how species respond to rapid global change. Although tropical regions harbor most of the planet's biodiversity, investigations on species' phenological changes are heavily biased toward temperate regions. Such unevenness in phenological research is also taxonomically biased, with reptiles being the least studied group among tetrapod species regarding animal phenology. Herein, we used long-term time-series data to investigate environmentally driven changes in the activity pattern of tropical forest snakes. We gathered natural history collection and citizen science data for 25 snake species (five venomous and 20 non-venomous) from an Atlantic Forest region in southeastern Brazil. Using circular mixed-effects models, we investigate whether snake activity patterns followed the variation in environmental variables over a decade. Our results show that the activity pattern of Atlantic Forest snakes was seasonal and largely driven by average temperature and relative humidity. Since snakes are ectothermic animals, they are particularly sensitive to temperature variations, especially at small scales. Moreover, relative humidity can affect snake's seasonal activities through physiological constraints and/or prey availability. Most specimens were registered during the rainy season, with highly venomous snakes (lanceheads and coral snakes) emerging as the most abundant taxa. We highlight the importance of citizen science and natural history collections in better understanding biodiversity. Furthermore, our data obtained from local collectors underscore the need for environmental education programs and collaboration between researchers and local decision-makers to raise awareness and reduce conflicts between people and snakes in the region.

Keywords: Atlantic forest; circular analyses; citizen science; climate change; local collectors; phenology; venomous snakes.