Landscape effects on the population dynamics of small mammal communities: a preliminary analysis of prey-resource variations

• Main Authors: Raoul, Francis, Defaut, Régis, Michelat, Dominique, Montadert, Marc, Pépin, Didier, Quéré, J. P., Tissot, Bruno, Delattre, P., Giraudoux, Patrick
• Other Authors: Laboratoire Chrono-environnement - CNRS - UBFC (UMR 6249) (LCE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC), FREDON-DRAF-SRPV, Ministère Agriculture, LPO Franche-Comté, LPO, Maison de la Réserve, RNF, Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (UMR CBGP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2001
• Subjects: landscape; prey-resource variations; small mammal; community; [SDV.EE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment; Microtus arvalis
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00341582

International audience This study aims at estimating the effect of landscape composition on the availability of small mammal preys (in terms of biomass) to predators on a sectorial scale (n x 1km2). Four study sites, representative of different stages of agriculture intensification, were selected in eastern France according to landscape composition. The population dynamics of Microtus arvalis, Arvicola terrestris, Clethrionomys glareolus and Apodemus sp. were monitored from 1992 to 1996 by using index methods and trapping. M. arvalis and A. terrestris population biomasses were stable in landscapes with low percentage of permanent grassland. M. arvalis populations displayed greater biomass variations with sharp declines, in the sites where the proportion of permanent grassland to farmland was greater than 50%. A. terrestris populations were very unstable in one study site where the proportion of permanent grassland to farmland was greater than 85%. Synchronic patterns between M. arvalis populations and the populations of hedgerow rodents were suspected at sites with large fluctuations of M. arvalis: every decline of the populations of hedgerow rodents was concomitant with the M. arvalis decline. Those results suggest that two kinds of ecological systems in terms of prey-resource variations for mammalian predators can be distinguished: (i) stable in landscapes with lower proportion of permanent grassland, and (ii) unstable, with grassland species crashes and synchronous declines of the rodent community, in landscapes with higher proportion of permanent grassland. Moreover, the population dynamics of small mammals were asynchronous between the four sites situated at relatively short distance (some tens kilometres).