Shrinking forest shrinks skink: morphological change in response to rainforest fragmentation in the prickly forest skink (Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae)

Large-scale fragmentation of rainforest occurred on the Atherton Tableland in the Australian Wet Tropics from 50 to 100 years ago, leaving numerous fr agments of varying sizes. Eleven fragments (from < 1 to 75 ha in area) and eight continuous-forest sites were studied to assess the effects of fragmen tation on the morphology and demography of the rainforest-endemic prickly f orest skink (Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae), Skink abundance (number of indi viduals captured per hour of search effort) was significantly greater in co ntinuous forest than in forest fragments. Moreover, both skink abundance an d the availability of decaying logs, which provide key habitat for this spe cies, increased with fragment area. Fragments contained a smaller proportio n of adults, and individuals in fragments were smaller on average for all m easured morphological features, than those in continuous forest. Thus, alth ough prickly forest skinks appear to be maintaining populations in rainfore st remnants? they are nonetheless being affected by fragmentation. These de mographic and morphological changes may be caused by alterations in habitat and prey availability and/or by microclimatic changes associated with edge effects. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.