Effects of vegetation density on the diversity of lizards in an area of the Brazilian Cerrado

The Cerrado is a highly threatened biome that harbors a great portion of Brazilian biodiversity, including many endemic species. Such richness may reflect its environmental heterogeneity, which includes different vegetation types (from grasslands to forests). Several endemic species in the Cerrado are strongly associated with open vegetation types. Recent studies have shown that woody encroachment can negatively impact several components of biodiversity. In the present study, we provide information on variation in lizard diversity across different vegetation types in a protected area located in the southern portion of the Cerrado and evaluated the effect of vegetation density on lizard taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity. We predicted that the three aspects of lizard diversity would be negatively affected by vegetation density and that Beta diversity would vary significantly across the vegetation gradient. We confirmed nearly all of our predictions, except for functional d..., , , # Effects of vegetation density on the diversity of lizards in an area of the Brazilian Cerrado

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2z34tmpxf](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2z34tmpxf)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

**Supplementary Figures_FINAL.pdf**

Supplementary material that includes figures and tables are not included in the main manuscript. 

Figure S1. Phylogenetic tree of lizard species sampled with pitfall traps at the Santa Bárbara Ecological Station. Only species with more than five individuals sampled are included. Colors represent each family. Blue: Gymnophtalmidae; Gold: Teiidae; Orange: Anolidae; Purple: Scincidae.

Figure S2. Shepard plot (or stress plot) to observe the goodness of fit of the data into the NMDS analysis.Figure S3. Half-normal plots with Simulation Envelopes of the best fitted generalized linear models showing the predicted effect of A − NDVI (300 m buffer) on lizard richness; B− NDVI (300 m buffer) on lizard abundanc...,