Attributes of rock-dwelling reptiles within the Australian wheat-sheep zone

Rocky environments host rich levels of biodiversity, and provide vital habitat for specialised organisms, range-restricted species, and a broad range of ectotherms adapted to saxicoline environments. In Australia, rock habitat is being destroyed during soil amelioration practices associated with agricultural intensification. Advances in rock crushing technology, developed to expand or increase crop yields and efficiency, pose an undocumented threat to biodiversity, especially reptiles dependent on non-renewable rock habitat in agricultural landscapes worldwide. Rock removal is a legislated key threatening process in parts of Australia and will accelerate biodiversity loss if not mitigated. We estimated reptile species’ range overlap with dryland cropping and modified pastoral regions within the Australian wheat-sheep zone to assess potential impacts of rock crushing practices. We examined species- and family-richness within the impact zone, and across bioregions within the impact...