| Summary: | Resumen del póster presentado a la 10th European Vertebrate Pest Management Conference, celebrada en Sevilla (España) del 21 al 25 de septiembre de 2015. Farmland landscape in the Spanish northwestern plateau is characterized by a network of thin grassy boundaries and edges surrounding and connecting crop plots. These boundaries, in a homogeneous landscape where natural vegetation areas are limited, constitute typical common vole (Microtus arvalis Pallas) reservoirs, and also dispersal lines when crop plots do not have enough vegetation cover. Presence of voles in such boundaries usually do not cause significant damages in surrounding crops, but when an outbreak occurs voles colonize also crop plots from these boundaries. In outbreak years, cleaning vegetation in boundaries when most farmers are ploughing surrounding soil for preparing to sow, or when crops have not yet developed (very low plantlets not covering ground), could prevent or decrease subsequent crop colonization (thus minimizing damages and economic impact), through different mechanisms (e.g. minimization of the territory surface with optimal habitat for vole survival and breeding; reduction of dispersal ratio through alteration of adequate tracks; increase to exposure to avian predators due to decrease of protective cover). We assess in this contribution the influence of cleaning boundaries on common vole colonization and activity in neighboring plots. Our results indicate that, when compared with control plots, cleaning vegetation cover in boundaries has a short term effect reducing vole activity directly in boundaries, and a mediumlong term effect reducing colonization and activity in surrounding plots during crop development. We also discuss the effect of two cleaning strategies (physical soil removal and burning) in two different crop types (pluri-annual forage and annual grain crop). Peer Reviewed
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