AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS AS REFUGES FOR HERPETOFAUNA IN ZONES OF ACCRETION-RETREAT AND COASTAL EROSION IN TABASCO, MÉXICO

Abstract

Coasts in Tabasco, México, present an important erosion process and increase in the average level of the sea, related to global warming; this is generating processes of coastal retreat and accretion that directly influence the composition and structure of ecosystems, so that the biodiversity that inhabits them select different refuges in order to survive despite of these impacts. The diversity of herpetofauna recorded in six monitoring stations in a retreating zone and two in an accretion zone was analyzed. In the stations with retreat, the dominating vegetation are coconut (Cocos nucifera) plantations and mangrove (Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa, Avicennia germinans and Conocarpus erectus), and on those with accretion, grassland and tall grasses. According to the distribution of sampling stations, those with greatest proximity to the coast present better wealth and diversity, showing an impact caused by the retreat on species that use the adjacent vegetation as refuge. Amphibians and reptiles prefer a habitat where they do not suffer from the direct beating of wind, since this implies loss of liquids; therefore, they use cultivated areas, such as coconut plantations on the coastal zone.