Abundance of Common Shrew (Sorex Araneus) in Selected Forest Habitats of Moravia (Czech Republic) (original) (raw)
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Population dynamics of the common shrew (Sorex araneus) in Central European forest clearings
European Journal of Wildlife Research
The population dynamics of shrews (Soricidae) are not well known even though they form an important part of forest ecosystems and represent suitable bioindicators of ecosystem quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the population dynamics of shrews in mountain and upland forest clearings in four study areas within the Czech Republic and to reveal how climatic factors influenced fluctuations in their abundance for a decade (2007–2017). In total, we trapped 7,538 individuals of 18 small mammal species. From 760 individuals of seven shrew species, the common shrew (Sorex araneus) was significantly dominated in all study areas. We did not observe any significant, regular multi-annual cycles of the common shrew. However, a cross-correlation in density fluctuation of this species was detected in all mountain areas indicating the influence of environmental factors acting on a larger geographical scale. The autumn abundance of shrews was dependent on the subset of climatic variables...
Small mammals at forest plantations in the Jeseníky Mts. (Czech Republic)
Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2012
SUCHOMEL, J., ČEPELKA, L., PURCHART, L.: Small mammals at forest plantations in the Jeseníky Mts. (Czech Republic). Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2012, LX, No. 5, pp. 211-218 Small mammal community was studied at Fagus sylvatica plantations in 2007-2011. The animals were captured in snap traps once a year in autumn in the course of three consecutive nights. The abundance, species composition, dominance and diversity were assessed with the help of the Shannon (H) and Simpson (1/D) indexes. A total of 586 individuals of 11 species were captured, out of this 8 rodent species (Rodentia) and 3 insectivorous species (Soricomorpha). Four species, namely Apodemus fl avicollis (30.2%), Myodes glareolus (27.1%), Microtus agrestis (24.6%) and Sorex araneus (12.6%), were eudominant, one species was dominant (Microtus arvalis, D = 3.7%) and the remaining six species were subrecedent (D < 1%). The structure of the small mammal community was strongly aff ected by the herb layer composition. Population dynamics of A. fl avicollis and M. glareolus fl uctuated strongly in relation to beech nut crops in the surrounding high forests. The overall diversity was H = 1.546 a 1/D = 0.757 with equitability of 0.427, which indicates a highly unbalanced community. Diff erences in diversity, both at individual plots and in relation to altitude, were inconclusive (p > 0.05). The monitored plantations represented important habitats of rodent species signifi cant in terms of forest management, as well as refugia of an abundant population of the common shrew. With respect to the subrecedent species (Sicista betulina, Muscardinus avellanarius, Crocidura suaveolens), the paper extends the knowledge on their habitat preferences. The obtained values on biodiversity give evidence of the key importance of forest plantations for the small mammal biodiversity in our production forests. small mammals, Rodentia, Soricidae, Jeseníky Mts., forest plantations Address doc. Ing. Josef Suchomel, Ph.D., Ing. et Ing. Ladislav Čepelka, Ing. Luboš Purchart, Ph.D., Ústav ekologie lesa, Mendelova univerzita v Brně, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Česká republika,
Responses of small mammals to habitat characteristics in Southern Carpathian forests
2021
Compared to Northern Carpathians, the small mammal fauna of Southern Carpathian forests is poorly known, with no data on habitat use; our study seeks to fill this gap. To this end, we conducted a survey in the Southern Carpathians for five years, assessing habitat use by small mammals in forests along an elevational gradient. Trapping was done using live traps set in transects at elevations between 820 and 2040 m. For each transect we evaluated variables related to vegetation structure, habitat complexity, and geographical location. We considered abundance, species composition and species richness as response variables. The rodents Apodemus flavicollis and Myodes glareolus and the shrew Sorex araneus were common and dominant. Their abundance were positively correlated with tree cover, the best explanatory variable. Responses to other variables were mixed. The strong divergence in the relative habitat use by the three most abundant species may act as a mechanism that enables their co...
Notes, 2006
We analyzed shrew community data from 398,832 pitfall trapnights at 303 sites across the upper Piedmont, Blue Ridge, northern Ridge and Valley, southern Ridge and Valley, Cumberland Plateau and Allegheny Mountains and Plateau sections of the central and southern Appalachian Mountains from Alabama to Pennsylvania. The objectives of our research were to describe regional species distributions and to identify macro-environmental factors important to shrews at both the community and individual species scales. Our study documented the presence of nine species with a low of three in the southern Ridge and Valley section to a high of eight in the Blue Ridge section where the Appalachian, Austral and Boreomontane fauna elements converge. Region-wide, shrew species richness was related to increasing elevation and was higher in mesic forest types than in xeric types. Conformity to expected distribution of shrew bodysize (small, medium and large) appropriate for the central and southern Appalachian species pool showed no relationship to elevation gradients. However, xeric forest types conformed to a balanced assemblage of size classes less than expected. Among individual species, presence of masked shrew (Jbrex cinere~s) and smoky shrew (SorexJgme~rrs) was associated strongly with increasing elevation and mesic forests, whereas presence of southeastern shrew (Sorex htlgirost7atis) and southern short-tailed shrew (Bhrdna camhensis) showed an opposite trend with elevation and forest type. The strong relationships we documented between presence of these four species with elevation and forest type facilitated reliable predictive habitat modeling. Conversely , the presence of pygmy shrew (Sorex hoyt) and northern short-tailed shrew (BLarina brevica~da) was not linked to forest type and only weakly linked to increasing elevation. Our analyses failed to produce meaningful relationshps about extreme habitat specialists documented by our survey, the rock shrew (Sorex dj)ar) associated with colluvial talus, the water shrew (Sorex palastn's) associated with high-gradient streams, and the least shrew (Cyjtootis pama) associated with oldfields and early sucessional habitats.
2016
In the years between 2005 and 2012, this study has evaluated the relative abundance and diversity of insectivores of the shrew family (Soricidae) in lowland, upland, and mountain forest habitats of Moravia. In each of these three different elevation levels, two types of habitats were further defined. They include old growth forests, with tall, fruiting trees and a limited herbaceous forest floor, as well as forest clearings with dense undergrowth of herbs and grasses, which means a total of six types of habitats. Shrews were captured using snap traps set up in lines. A total of 302 individuals belonging to seven species were found. The most abundant and most dominant species was Sorex araneus (rA = 0.313; D = 73.45%), while other species were present in much lower numbers. To evaluate the communities, the used ecological indices included diversity, equitability, and similarity. The highest number of species was found in mountain clearings (n = 5), while the lowest occurred in old up...
Comparison of two sampling methods of small mammals in the margin of a lowland forest
Biologia
The catching efficiency of snap traps and pitfall traps in sampling rodents and shrews was compared. The two types of traps were exposed simultaneously in the margin of a floodplain forest in the East Slovakian Lowland during 1996-1997. Snap traps were set in lines of50 traps and pitfall traps in groups of5' In total, 456 individuals ofeight rodent and four insectivore species were caught' Of these, nine species were commonly found in both types of traps. Pitfall traps were more effective in sampling shrews (Sorex araneus' S. minutus) and field vole (Microtus arvaiis), while the rodent species Apodemus flavicoilis, A' microps and C. glareolus occurred more frequently in snap traps. Snap traps were more effective than pitfalls, The sex ratio of rodents was similar in both types of traps.
Relationships Between Shrews (Sorex Spp.) and Downed Wood In the Vancouver Watersheds, BC
1995
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Feeding ecology of three sympatric Sorex shrew species in montane forests of Slovenia
Folia Zoologica -Praha-
For the understanding of shrew communities, their coexistence and competition, the knowledge of diet partitioning among sympatric shrew species is crucial. In this study, the trophic niches of three coexisting Sorex species: S. alpinus, S. araneus and S. minutus were compared for the first time. Shrews were taken from a montane forest habitat in northern Slovenia (NS). A little known species, S. alpinus, fed mostly on Insecta (50 %) and Lumbricidae (25 %), as well as Lithobiomorpha, Araneae and Opiliones. Its diet differed significantly from the diet of S. araneus and S. minutus. On the other hand, a nearly-perfect trophic niche overlap was found for S. araneus and S. minutus suggesting their great hindrance of competition for food. For comparison, S. araneus from a montane forest habitat in southern Slovenia (SS) was considered. Sorex araneus from SS fed on 15 taxa, while the shrew diets in NS habitat were half as diverse. In contrast to previous studies, the nearly-perfect overlap of trophic niches in S. araneus-S. minutus indicates that in montane forest habitat, otherwise highly competitive shrews can share trophic niches. Fig. 2. The occurrence of prey of different sizes in the diet of Sorex species.
The Effects of Forestry Works on the Small Mammals' population in the Ocsa City, Hungary.
EÖTVÖS LORAND UNIVERSITY, 2020
The forest cover change is affecting the living organisms in forestry habitats, and the change of rodents’ population dynamic can be a good example in that context. It is so often referred that small mammals are sensitive to the changes of environment as indicator species. While working in Ocsa city located 30 km away from Budapest, the research realized that the effects of management-based forestry activities change the small mammals' population dynamics, spatial distribution, habitat preferences, their diversity, and richness, etc., based on vegetation cover. It seems that habitat-related preference for these mammals is quite various and changeable, due to environmental factors, the microclimate of the habitat, and mating, nesting, hiding from predators, and so on. To realize how much the study areas significantly differ from each other due to forest regulation, the data collected from the study areas, and live-animal trapping (Sherman) methodology implemented. The study areas separated into the climax (old forest existed), modified (young trees individuals existed and bushes cut), and clear-cut forests (an opening area covered by bushes and herbs). The clear-cut applied forest remained the small bushes and herbs; however, that plot's vegetation cover is changing by the time, due to succession of the vegetation. The aim is to understand how much the difference between these plots over the study years, and whether that changes only at the vegetation or it is also at the animal level. The research focused on the rodent species, such as voles, the mouse, and shrews respectively from these three plots and aimed to answer these questions. 1. Is there any difference between three habitats in vegetation based covers over the study years, if yes what is the difference? 2. Is there any difference between these three plots in small mammals’ population dynamic-related, if yes what is the difference? 3. Is there any correlation between habitats and small mammals’ population?
Effects of forest management on density and survival in three forest rodent species
Forest Ecology and Management, 2016
Several studies have shown that small mammal communities are influenced by silvicultural activities, possibly because these affect the quality of wildlife habitats. Previous research mainly focused on community parameters and abundance of target species, however the most robust way to study the impacts of forestry on wildlife is to follow a demographic-response approach. Investigating multiple demographic measurements is essential to understand how populations respond to forest management, nevertheless studies focusing on multiple demographic parameters are lacking. Our analyses targeted individual survival and population density, to understand the demographic mechanisms by which forest management exerts its effects on small mammals. We focused on the populations of Apodemus flavicollis, A. sylvaticus and Myodes glareolus, constituting the guild of forest-and ground-dwelling rodents in central Italy. Populations were monitored for three years in a continuous forest subject to different management practices (mainly coppicing activities and conifer afforestation). We identified four forest management types (three coppice stands logged in different years and a conifer plantation) where we selected 12 sampling areas. We sampled a total of 31,752 trap-nights capturing more than 1350 individuals. We also gathered quantitative data on the amount of trophic and cover resources in each area to better interpret the response of populations to silvicultural activities. For all the three species, coppicing activities had strong positive effects on population density, which were, in some cases, matched by similar effects on individual survival whereas afforestation of conifer plantations negatively affected populations of A. flavicollis and M. glareolus. We found that different types of forest management, such as the recently coppiced stands, did not create high-density sinks but, rather, enhanced the carrying capacity of the habitats by increasing the availability of cover and food resources. On the contrary, the high forest resulted to be less preferred habitat for A. sylvaticus and M. glareolus, possibility due to its lack of food and cover resources. Our analyses encompassing multiple population parameters allowed us to highlight the mechanisms by which forest management affects small mammal populations.