Disturbance effects from fire and mining produce different lizard communities in eastern Australian forests

The lizard fauna of sand-mined dunes of the central coast of New South Wale s, Australia has been shown to be dominated by Ctenotus robustus and Ctenot us taeniolatus (Scincidae), with relative abundance changing with time sinc e mining. However, there is little published information on how this lizard fauna compares to that of the undisturbed open forest that previously grew on these sites. Here, existing data are added to in order to produce a lon ger chronosequence of times since sand-mining (4, 8, 14 and 20 years) than has been examined previously. The new data are compared to those from unmin ed forests. Ctenotus robustus and C. taeniolatus dominated lizard captures on mined areas, with peak abundances at 8 and 14 years, respectively. Lampr opholis guichenoti (Scincidae) was at low abundance until 20 years post-min ing and L. delicata was present only at 20 years post-mining. Unmined fores t burned 4, 8 or 14 years ago had a significantly different lizard communit y from that of sand-mined areas. Ctenotus robustus and C. taeniolatus were absent from unmined forest at all post-fire periods. Lampropholis guichenot i and Lampropholis delicata were numerically dominant in forest, with incre asing abundance of L. guichenoti with time since fire. Thus the composition of the lizard community on these coastal dunes is not solely determined by time since disturbance per se. Comparisons of sites on the basis of accumu lated leaf litter showed a significant relationship between Lampropholis ab undance and litter density. On sand-mined sites and forested sites with sim ilar leaf litter densities, the abundances of L. guichenoti were similar. A s Ctenotus were absent from unmined forest, we could not compare their dist ribution in unmined and mined areas. However, negative correlations of Cten otus abundance with canopy cover and understorey vegetation density offer a possible explanation for the absence of these species from forest.