The herpetofauna of the Sporades Islands (Aegean Sea, Greece): New discoveries and a review of a century of research

By

Foufopoulos, Johannes
Roussos, Stephen
Kalogiannis, Stamatis
Kalb, Samuel
Strachinis, Ilias
Brock, Kinsey M.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2024-7-31

Original Publication

Herpetozoa

Volume

37

Pages

231--256

Subjects

Amphibia , Biodiversity , Conservation , Greek islands , herpetofauna , island biogeography , Reptilia , Αμφίβια , βιοποικιλότητα , διατήρηση , ελληνικά νησιά , Ερπετά , ερπτικός , νησιωτική βιογεωγραφία

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.37.e125965

 

Abstract

The Sporades are one of the most biologically important archipelagos in the Aegean Sea (Greece) and have received priority conservation over the last 50 years. However, despite numerous early efforts, its herpetofauna is only partially described, resulting in many distributional gaps that have prevented adequate understanding and management of the resident species communities. We review one century of bibliography from the Northern Sporades and combine this information with a review of museum specimens and insights from numerous extensive field surveys over the last near-decade to provide for the first time a comprehensive picture of the reptiles and amphibians of the archipelago. We report here on 26 new island records and find that the herptile communities of the region are largely derived from the herpetofauna of the nearby Thessaly mainland, with only a few introduced taxa. There is also a small but significant set of endemic taxa in the archipelago. Island species richness declines with decreasing island size and increasing duration of island isolation. Herptile communities on smaller islands are progressively nested subsets of the communities on larger islands. The presence of reptile species depends sensitively on the condition and management of native ecosystems. While non-aquatic species maintain largely healthy populations, most populations are under pressure from the combined effects of rampant tourist development, the destruction and degradation of rare wetland habitats, and the abandonment of traditional agricultural landscapes. We provide recommendations regarding sustainable management of the local reptile and amphibian populations.