Why do we still know so little about common species?
This guest post was written by James Stroud, Ph. D. student in Dr. K en Feeley's lab at Florida International University. He is a regular blogger on the Feeley lab blog upwithclimate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- South Florida is a wild place for lizards. And at the moment, as the region’s most abundant native lizard, life sucks for the American green anole Anolis carolinensis . In the recent past a wealth of invasions have occurred from exotic Caribbean Anolis leading to the establishment of up to 10 non-native species around the Miami area, annually creeping further outwards towards the Everglades. The effect of congenerics on American green anoles has been well studied; the presence of an ecologically similar competitor – such as the now widespread Cuban brown anole Anolis sagrei (Fig. 2) – has forced them higher up into the trees and off the g...