How the common vole copes with modern farming: insights from a capture-mark-recapture experiment

• Published in: Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
• Main Authors: Bonnet, Timothée, Crespin, Laurent, Pinot, Adrien, Bruneteau, Laurent, Bretagnolle, Vincent, Gauffre, Bertrand
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité de Recherche d'Épidémiologie Animale (UR EpiA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive - UMR 5558 (LBBE), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement (VAS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité Expérimentale Fourrages et Environnement de Lusignan (UEFE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: Agricultural practices; Common vole; Dispersal; Capture-mark-recapture (CMR); Survival; Ploughing; [SDE]Environmental Sciences
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00919006; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2013.05.005

International audience In this study, using capture-mark-recapture (CMR), a common vole population was monitored for one year in an experimental study site dominated by meadows, in which field management followed a gradient of intensiveness. The aim was to estimate the demographic response to agricultural practices of the common vole. During the spring, the numbers captured were highest in the most intensively managed plots. After cereal harvesting, they were higher in meadows with the highest nitrogen input. No difference in survival was found among treatments. However, the pattern of transitions suggested that high mobility explained this result. Also, mechanical interventions like ploughing appeared to have powerful consequences for common vole survival. These results underline the critical role of dispersal and refuge habitats in the maintenance of populations of voles in agroecosystems.