Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Influence of vegetation structure on the small mammal community in a shortgrass prairie ecosystem

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Acta Theriologica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The structure of vegetation, and how this structure varies across a landscape, is crucial to understanding the distribution of wildlife species. Between 2002 and 2004, we sampled small mammal communities and measured vegetation structure at 185 locations across a range of disturbance regimes in a shortgrass prairie ecosystem in southeastern Colorado, USA. At each sampling location, the local disturbance regime was some combination of varying intensity of livestock grazing, military training activity, and fire. Vegetation structural characteristics measured included percent bare ground, basal cover, litter, shrub density, and mean grass and shrub height. Rodent communities were described by richness, diversity, total and per capita biomass, and species abundances. Northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster), Ord's kangaroo rats (Dipodomys ordii), silky pocket mice (Perognathus flavus), western harvest mice (Reithrodontomys megalotis), white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), southern plains wood rats (Neotoma micropus), thirteen-lined ground squirrels (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), and spotted ground squirrels (Spermophilus spilosoma) accounted for >99 % of all captures. Canonical correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between small mammals and vegetation structure. The first two canonical variates explained over 50 % of the variation in vegetation structure and were related to the ratio of bare ground to basal coverage and litter accumulation. Rodent community indices were most strongly related to litter accumulation and shrub density, though the models had low explanatory power. Our results agreed with published findings regarding microhabitat associations and indicated small mammal communities benefited from a system of interacting disturbances and the resulting landscape mosaic.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bartholomew GA, Caswell HH (1951) Locomotion in kangaroo rats and its adaptive significance. J Mammal 32:155–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berlow EL, D’Antonio CM, Reynolds SA (2002) Shrub expansion in montane meadows: the interaction of local-scale disturbance and site aridity. Ecol Appl 12:1103–1118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bock CE, Bock JH (1990) Effects of fire on wildlife in southwestern lowland habitats. In: Krammes JS, DeBano LF, M.J. Zwolinski MJ (eds) Effects of fire in management of southwestern natural resources: workshop proceedings. U.S. Forest Service, General Technical Report RM-191, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, pp 50–64

  • Briggs JM, Knapp AK, Brock BL (2002) Expansion of woody plants in tallgrass prairie: a fifteen-year study of fire and fire-grazing interactions. Am Midl Nat 147:287–294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown JH, Liebermann GA (1973) Resource utilization and coexistence of seed-eating desert rodents in sand dune habitats. Ecology 54:788–797

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark BK, Kaufman DW (1991) Effects of plant litter on foraging and nesting behavior of prairie rodents. J Mammal 72:502–512

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dale MR (1999) Spatial pattern analysis in plant ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson AD, Ponce E, Lightfoot DC, Fredrickson EL, Brown JH, Cruzado J, Brantley SL, Sierra-Corona R, List R, Toledo D, Ceballos G (2010) Rapid response of a grassland ecosystem to an experimental manipulation of a keystone rodent and domestic livestock. Ecology 91:3189–3200

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fleharty ED, Channell R (1997) Historical implications and characteristics of assemblages of small mammals in west-central Kansas. In: Yates TL, Gannon WL, Wilson DE (eds) Life among the Muses: papers in honor of James S. Findley. The Museum of Southwestern Biology, Special Publication 3, Albuquerque, New Mexico, pp 155–178

  • Harrison KA, Bardgett RD (2010) Influence of plant species and soil conditions on plant-soil feedback in mixed grassland communities. J Ecology 98:384–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henke SE, Bryant FC (1999) Effect of coyote removal on the faunal community in western Texas. J Wildl Manag 63:1066–1081

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobbs RJ, Huenneke LF (1992) Disturbance, diversity, and invasion: implications for conservation. Conserv Biol 6:324–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson MD, Horn CM (2008) Effects of rotational grazing on rodents and raptors in a coastal grassland. West North Amer Nat 68:444–452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jongman RHG, Ter Braak CTF, Van Tongeren OFR (1995) Data analysis in community and landscape ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman DW, Kaufman GA (1989) Burrow distribution of the thirteen-lined ground squirrel in grazed mixed-grass prairie: effect of artificial habitat structure. Prairie Nat 21:81–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman DW, Kaufman GA, Clark BK (2000) Small mammals in native and anthropogenic habitats in the Lake Wilson area of north-central Kansas. Southwest Nat 45:45–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knight DH (1994) Mountains and plains, the ecology of Wyoming landscapes. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard S, Kirkpatrick J, Marsden-Smedly J (2010) Variation in the effects of vertebrate grazing on fire potential between grassland structural types. J Appl Ecol 47:876–883

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longland WS, Price MV (1991) Direct observations of owls and heteromyid rodents: can predation risk explain microhabitat use? Ecology 72:2261–2273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyon LJ, Huff MH, Smith JK (2000) Fire effects on fauna at landscape scales. In: Smith JK (ed) Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on fauna. General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-42-vol.1, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, pp 43–49

  • McGarigal K, Cushman S, Stafford S (2000) Multivariate statistics for wildlife and ecology research. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Milchunas DG, Schulz KA, Shaw RB (1999) Plant community responses to disturbance by mechanized military maneuvers. J Environ Qual 28:1533–1547

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Milchunas DG, Schulz KA, Shaw RB (2000) Plant community structure in relation to long-term disturbance by mechanized military maneuvers in a semiarid region. Environ Manag 25:525–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morin PJ (1999) Community ecology. Blackwell Science, Malden

    Google Scholar 

  • Otis DL (1997) Analysis of habitat selection studies with multiple patches within cover types. J Wildl Manag 61:1016–1022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reed AW, Slade NA (2009) Environmental correlates of survival and reproduction in old-field rodents. J Mammal 90:680–685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reed AW, Kaufman GA, Rintoul DA, Kaufman DW (2004) Influence of prey abundance on raptors in tallgrass prairie. Prairie Nat 36:23–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed AW, Kaufman GA, Kaufman DW (2005) Rodent seed predation and GUDs: effect of burning and topography. Can J Zool 83:1279–1285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenzweig ML (1973) Habitat selection experiments with a pair of coexisting heteromyid rodent species. Ecology 62:327–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schorr RA, Siemers JL, Lukacs PM, Gionfriddo JP, Sovell JR, Rondeau RJ, Wunder MB (2007) Using survival of rodents to assess quality of prairie habitats. Southwest Nat 52:552–563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw RB, Diersing VE (1990) Tracked vehicle impacts on vegetation at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, Colorado. J Environ Qual 19:234–243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw RB, Anderson SL, Schulz KA, Diersing VE (1989) Plant communities, ecological checklist, and species list for the U.S. Army Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, Colorado. Colorado State University Science Series 37, Fort Collins, Colorado

  • Sieg CH (1997) The role of fire in managing for biological diversity on native rangelands of the northern Great Plains. In: Conserving biodiversity on native rangelands: symposium proceedings. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report RM-GTR-298, Rocky Mountain Range and Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, pp 31–38

  • Ter Braak CJF (1986) Canonical correspondence analysis: a new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology 67:1167–1179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson CM, Gese EM (2007) Food webs and intraguild predation: community interactions of a native mesocarnivore. Ecology 88:334–346

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turner MG, Gardner RH, O’Neill RV (2001) Landscape ecology in theory and practice. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Valone TJ, Kelt DA (1999) Fire and grazing in a shrub-invaded grassland community; independent or interactive ecological effects? J Arid Environ 42:15–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • VanNimwegen RE, Kretzer J, Cully JF Jr (2008) Ecosystem engineering by a colonial mammal: how prairie dogs structure rodent communities. Ecology 89:3298–3305

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Webster DB, Webster M (1971) Adaptive value of hearing and vision in kangaroo rat predator avoidance. Brain Behav Evol 4:310–322

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • White EP, Ernest SKM, Thibault KM (2004) Trade-offs in community properties through time in a desert rodent community. Am Nat 164:670–676

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wiens JA (1989) Spatial scaling in ecology. Functional Ecol 3:385–397

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Funding and logistical support were provided by the U.S. Army, Directorate of Environmental Compliance and Management, Fort Carson, Colorado, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Colorado Assistance Office, Golden, Colorado, and the Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Utah State University. Additional support was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. We thank T. Warren, B. Rosenlund, G. Belew, R. Bunn, D. Sharps, and M. Klavetter for logistical assistance and E. Joyce, J. White, E. Cleere, M. Watkins, D. Degeranno, A. Larkins, C. Roemer, D. Fletcher, W. Ulrey, S. Schopman, C. Gazal, A. Knipps, J. Garner, and C. Briggs for field assistance. We thank M. Conner, M. Ernest, J. MacMahon, and F. Provenza for review of the manuscript. Research protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees at the National Wildlife Research Center and Utah State University.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Craig M. Thompson

    Present address: U.S. Department of Agriculture/Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Fresno, CA, 93710, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322-5210, USA

    Craig M. Thompson

  2. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322-5295, USA

    Eric M. Gese

Authors
  1. Craig M. Thompson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eric M. Gese
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eric M. Gese.

Additional information

Communicated by: Karol Zub

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Thompson, C.M., Gese, E.M. Influence of vegetation structure on the small mammal community in a shortgrass prairie ecosystem. Acta Theriol 58, 55–61 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-012-0098-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-012-0098-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation