## 3 Results and Discussion
### Implications of LAI as a Habitat Index for Reptiles  
The relationships between the distribution of LAI values and number of reptile observations in the area of the Solska Forest show a few patterns (Figure 5). For the lowest range of sightings (1-3) LAI distribution is relatively narrow with the median value at 1.8. This is due to the fact that only a limited amount of surveillance was conducted in the early spring, _i.e._, when LAI values were small (Figure 2). For other ranges of reptile sightings (from 4-6 to 19-21) LAI distribution ranges are similar, except for the 16-18 range where the number of species detected (\(N=16\)) was smaller compared to the others (average \(N=67\)). These distributions represent optimal LAI values in reptile habitats without, however, distinguishing between actual reptile species. The distributions are relatively large and cover LAI values varying between 0.17 and 5.17. The last two ranges of reptile sightings (22-24 and 25-27) are narrower than the previous ones and their median LAI values are lower. This high number of sightings was recorded during spring at Joz and BM sites, and refers to sand lizards as the reptile species most frequently observed during our research (Table 2). LAI distributions were significantly different depending on the number of reptile species sighted at the research site (Figure 6). The higher the number of the species, the higher the LAI median. This shows that low LAI values, typical for pine monocultures and xerothermic grasslands, were not preferential for multiple reptile populations. It is also worthwhile noting that LAI distribution for three surveyed species in a research site was narrower (Figure 6). This may indicate that more restrictive habitat conditions,  
Figure 4: Reptile species composition (%) at study sites. Full name of the abbreviations are provided in Table 1. Satellite true color image was used as the background: dark green = forest; light green = agriculture; grey = cities and villages. with the participation of vegetation characterized by 0.8-4.3 LAI values, are associated with greater species richness. Nevertheless, the extent of the LAI distribution for three species may also result from the lower number of measurements (\(N\) = 33), compared to other factors. The number of reptile species sighted at research sites also can be illustrated with regard to LAI distributions for the occurrence and non-occurrence of specific reptile species (Figure 7). Smooth snakes, sand lizards and common lizards, despite differences in the extent of their relative LAI distributions, do not show significant differences for the \"observed\" and \"not observed\" factors. This suggests these species are present at a large range of LAI, but this fact by itself is not necessarily the main factor determining the presence of these animals. The opposite is true for the common viper, grass snake and blind worm; in the case of these species, a significant difference was noted between the \"observed\" and \"not observed\" factors. For these three reptile species there is an apparent association with higher LAI values, the evidence of which is the higher LAI median value for the \"observed\" factor compared to the \"not observed\" one. Figure 5: Number of observed reptiles as a function of LAI values. Figure 6: Number of reptile species observed at each research site as a function of LAI values. These three species may be dominant contributors to the increase in the median LAI value for the greater number of total observed reptile species (Figure 6). Nonetheless, the distributions shown in Figure 7 can also be interpreted in a different way. Other research has shown that the investigated reptile species are associated with the presence of diverse vegetation [28, 29, 30] which, in turn, results in a large spectrum of LAI among habitats, as shown in Figure 7. Our results show sand lizard observations over a broader range of LAI values (Figure 7).