A Comparison of Small Rodent Assemblages after a 20 Year Interval in the Alps
Human-induced environmental alterations in the Alps may importantly affect small mammal species, but evidence in this sense is limited. We live-trapped small rodents in the Central-Eastern Italian Alps in three close-by habitat types (rocky scree, alpine grassland, and heath) at 2100 m a.s.l. during...
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Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
2023
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2076-2615/13/8/1407/ 2023-08-20T04:05:59+02:00 A Comparison of Small Rodent Assemblages after a 20 Year Interval in the Alps Giulia Ferrari Dino Scaravelli Andrea Mustoni Marco Armanini Filippo Zibordi Olivier Devineau Francesca Cagnacci Donato A. Grasso Federico Ossi agris 2023-04-19 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13081407 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Wildlife https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13081407 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Animals; Volume 13; Issue 8; Pages: 1407 assemblage composition bank vole Central-Eastern Italian Alps range limits small rodents snow vole Text 2023 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13081407 2023-08-01T09:45:31Z Human-induced environmental alterations in the Alps may importantly affect small mammal species, but evidence in this sense is limited. We live-trapped small rodents in the Central-Eastern Italian Alps in three close-by habitat types (rocky scree, alpine grassland, and heath) at 2100 m a.s.l. during summer-fall, in 1997 and 2016. We compared small rodent assemblages through a Redundancy Detrended Analysis (RDA). In both surveys, we detected two specialist species, i.e., the common vole (Microtus arvalis) and the snow vole (Chionomys nivalis), and, unexpectedly, the forest generalist bank vole (Myodes glareolus). In 1997, grassland was mainly occupied by the common vole, while the bank vole and the snow vole were sympatric in the other habitats. In 2016, the snow vole was detected only in the scree, while other species did not show distribution changes. We discuss a series of hypotheses that might have driven the differences observed across decades, among which is a species-specific response to abiotic and biotic environmental alterations, with the alpine habitat specialist moving out of sub-optimal habitats. We encourage further research on this topic, e.g., via long-term longitudinal studies. Text Common vole Microtus arvalis MDPI Open Access Publishing Animals 13 8 1407 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
assemblage composition bank vole Central-Eastern Italian Alps range limits small rodents snow vole |
spellingShingle |
assemblage composition bank vole Central-Eastern Italian Alps range limits small rodents snow vole Giulia Ferrari Dino Scaravelli Andrea Mustoni Marco Armanini Filippo Zibordi Olivier Devineau Francesca Cagnacci Donato A. Grasso Federico Ossi A Comparison of Small Rodent Assemblages after a 20 Year Interval in the Alps |
topic_facet |
assemblage composition bank vole Central-Eastern Italian Alps range limits small rodents snow vole |
description |
Human-induced environmental alterations in the Alps may importantly affect small mammal species, but evidence in this sense is limited. We live-trapped small rodents in the Central-Eastern Italian Alps in three close-by habitat types (rocky scree, alpine grassland, and heath) at 2100 m a.s.l. during summer-fall, in 1997 and 2016. We compared small rodent assemblages through a Redundancy Detrended Analysis (RDA). In both surveys, we detected two specialist species, i.e., the common vole (Microtus arvalis) and the snow vole (Chionomys nivalis), and, unexpectedly, the forest generalist bank vole (Myodes glareolus). In 1997, grassland was mainly occupied by the common vole, while the bank vole and the snow vole were sympatric in the other habitats. In 2016, the snow vole was detected only in the scree, while other species did not show distribution changes. We discuss a series of hypotheses that might have driven the differences observed across decades, among which is a species-specific response to abiotic and biotic environmental alterations, with the alpine habitat specialist moving out of sub-optimal habitats. We encourage further research on this topic, e.g., via long-term longitudinal studies. |
format |
Text |
author |
Giulia Ferrari Dino Scaravelli Andrea Mustoni Marco Armanini Filippo Zibordi Olivier Devineau Francesca Cagnacci Donato A. Grasso Federico Ossi |
author_facet |
Giulia Ferrari Dino Scaravelli Andrea Mustoni Marco Armanini Filippo Zibordi Olivier Devineau Francesca Cagnacci Donato A. Grasso Federico Ossi |
author_sort |
Giulia Ferrari |
title |
A Comparison of Small Rodent Assemblages after a 20 Year Interval in the Alps |
title_short |
A Comparison of Small Rodent Assemblages after a 20 Year Interval in the Alps |
title_full |
A Comparison of Small Rodent Assemblages after a 20 Year Interval in the Alps |
title_fullStr |
A Comparison of Small Rodent Assemblages after a 20 Year Interval in the Alps |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Comparison of Small Rodent Assemblages after a 20 Year Interval in the Alps |
title_sort |
comparison of small rodent assemblages after a 20 year interval in the alps |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13081407 |
op_coverage |
agris |
genre |
Common vole Microtus arvalis |
genre_facet |
Common vole Microtus arvalis |
op_source |
Animals; Volume 13; Issue 8; Pages: 1407 |
op_relation |
Wildlife https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13081407 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13081407 |
container_title |
Animals |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
1407 |
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1774716812279152640 |