Vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands
Since the introduction of non-native rodents to the Caribbean region, these invaders have successfully occupied many, if not most, islands where they pose tremendous threats to native biodiversity and ecosystems. The objective of our study was to conduct a preliminary assessment of the relative abun...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:57d9ee1675074034846fd8ebd1562f38 2023-05-15T18:05:35+02:00 Vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands Hannah Madden Tinde Van Andel Jeremy Miller Michael Stech Kevin Verdel Eline Eggermont 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00743 https://doaj.org/article/57d9ee1675074034846fd8ebd1562f38 EN eng Elsevier http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989419302756 https://doaj.org/toc/2351-9894 2351-9894 doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00743 https://doaj.org/article/57d9ee1675074034846fd8ebd1562f38 Global Ecology and Conservation, Vol 20, Iss , Pp - (2019) Ecology QH540-549.5 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00743 2022-12-31T10:07:59Z Since the introduction of non-native rodents to the Caribbean region, these invaders have successfully occupied many, if not most, islands where they pose tremendous threats to native biodiversity and ecosystems. The objective of our study was to conduct a preliminary assessment of the relative abundance of invasive alien rodents in different vegetation types on the small Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, which has no native rodent species. We used tracking tunnels (baited ink cards placed in tunnels to identify the prints of animals lured to the card) to determine the presence of rodent species. We collected data in 25 × 25 m (n = 13) and 5 × 5 m (n = 130) plots to determine whether elevation, number of tree species, canopy cover or other microhabitat components were correlated with rodent relative abundance. Invasive rodents are present in varying relative abundances in rural areas on St. Eustatius. House mice (Mus musculus) were not recorded inside the terrestrial protected areas, whereas black rats (Rattus rattus) were detected in all elevations and all but one vegetation type sampled. We determined significant correlations between some of the habitat characteristics, especially elevation, canopy height, leaf litter cover and number of tree species, which showed significant collinearity with 27 of 45 pairwise comparisons. There was a significant correlation between rodent relative abundance and the number of tree species, but not between elevation, number of living trees, number of shrubs, rainfall, canopy cover, canopy height, leaf litter cover, leaf litter depth, or slope. There was a significant difference within vegetation types for the frequency of traps containing rat versus mouse tracks. Our study was impacted by two major hurricanes in September 2017. Keywords: Black rat, House mouse, Island, Relative abundance, Tracking tunnels, Vegetation Article in Journal/Newspaper Rattus rattus Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Mouse Island ENVELOPE(70.133,70.133,-49.450,-49.450) Global Ecology and Conservation 20 e00743 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology QH540-549.5 |
spellingShingle |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Hannah Madden Tinde Van Andel Jeremy Miller Michael Stech Kevin Verdel Eline Eggermont Vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands |
topic_facet |
Ecology QH540-549.5 |
description |
Since the introduction of non-native rodents to the Caribbean region, these invaders have successfully occupied many, if not most, islands where they pose tremendous threats to native biodiversity and ecosystems. The objective of our study was to conduct a preliminary assessment of the relative abundance of invasive alien rodents in different vegetation types on the small Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, which has no native rodent species. We used tracking tunnels (baited ink cards placed in tunnels to identify the prints of animals lured to the card) to determine the presence of rodent species. We collected data in 25 × 25 m (n = 13) and 5 × 5 m (n = 130) plots to determine whether elevation, number of tree species, canopy cover or other microhabitat components were correlated with rodent relative abundance. Invasive rodents are present in varying relative abundances in rural areas on St. Eustatius. House mice (Mus musculus) were not recorded inside the terrestrial protected areas, whereas black rats (Rattus rattus) were detected in all elevations and all but one vegetation type sampled. We determined significant correlations between some of the habitat characteristics, especially elevation, canopy height, leaf litter cover and number of tree species, which showed significant collinearity with 27 of 45 pairwise comparisons. There was a significant correlation between rodent relative abundance and the number of tree species, but not between elevation, number of living trees, number of shrubs, rainfall, canopy cover, canopy height, leaf litter cover, leaf litter depth, or slope. There was a significant difference within vegetation types for the frequency of traps containing rat versus mouse tracks. Our study was impacted by two major hurricanes in September 2017. Keywords: Black rat, House mouse, Island, Relative abundance, Tracking tunnels, Vegetation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hannah Madden Tinde Van Andel Jeremy Miller Michael Stech Kevin Verdel Eline Eggermont |
author_facet |
Hannah Madden Tinde Van Andel Jeremy Miller Michael Stech Kevin Verdel Eline Eggermont |
author_sort |
Hannah Madden |
title |
Vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands |
title_short |
Vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands |
title_full |
Vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands |
title_fullStr |
Vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands |
title_full_unstemmed |
Vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands |
title_sort |
vegetation associations and relative abundance of rodents on st. eustatius, caribbean netherlands |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00743 https://doaj.org/article/57d9ee1675074034846fd8ebd1562f38 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(70.133,70.133,-49.450,-49.450) |
geographic |
Mouse Island |
geographic_facet |
Mouse Island |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Rattus rattus |
op_source |
Global Ecology and Conservation, Vol 20, Iss , Pp - (2019) |
op_relation |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989419302756 https://doaj.org/toc/2351-9894 2351-9894 doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00743 https://doaj.org/article/57d9ee1675074034846fd8ebd1562f38 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00743 |
container_title |
Global Ecology and Conservation |
container_volume |
20 |
container_start_page |
e00743 |
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1766177068371935232 |