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Sheep grazing and rodent populations: evidence of negative interactions from a landscape scale experiment

  • Population Ecology
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Abstract

Inter-specific competition, facilitation and predation influence herbivore assemblages, but no study has experimentally explored the interactions between large ungulates and small rodents. In a fully replicated, landscape scale experiment, we manipulated densities of domestic sheep in mountain pastures in Norway. We then determined population growth and densities of rodents by live trapping in each of the areas with different sheep densities. We found that the (summer) population growth rate and autumn density of the field vole (Microtus agrestis) was lower at high sheep density. This provides the first experimental evidence of negative interactions between an ungulate and small rodent species. There was no effect on the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus), whose diet differs from sheep. Sheep density, therefore, potentially alters the pattern of inter-specific population synchrony amongst voles. Our study shows that negative interactions between large ungulates and small rodents may be species-specific and negative population consequences for the rodent population appear above threshold ungulate densities.

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Acknowledgements

This experiment was funded by the Research Council of Norway (Project no. 134361/720), Tiltaksfondet for småfe- og fjørfe m.m., Grunneigarfondet, Directorate for Nature Management, Buskerud Landbruksselskap, BU-funds from Aust-Agder, Buskerud, Telemark and Vest-Agder counties, and municipalities Bykle, Eidfjord, Gjesdal, Hol, Hægebostad, Kvinesdal, Nore og Uvdal, Tinn, Sirdal, Suldal, Ulvik and Vinje. We thank particularly Knut-Eirik Sveingard, Ragnhild Vikesland, Erling Skurdal and all landowners for support. We thank Yngve Rekdal, NIJOS, for doing the coarse scale vegetation mapping, Marianne Evju and Kjell Moen for help with analysis of the vegetation plots, and Jonathan E. Colman for checking our English and providing other useful comments to the ms. We also greatly appreciate comments made by Patrick Duncan, Jean-Michel Gaillard and one anonymous referee on previous drafts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program for Experimental Behavioral and Ecological Research (EBE), Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, N-0316, Oslo, Norway

    Harald Steen

  2. Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, N-0316, Oslo, Norway

    Atle Mysterud

  3. Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Gunnar Austrheim

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  1. Harald Steen
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  2. Atle Mysterud
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  3. Gunnar Austrheim
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Correspondence to Atle Mysterud.

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Table 4 Results from model selection on population growth rates in field voles and bank voles using the AIC criterion
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Steen, H., Mysterud, A. & Austrheim, G. Sheep grazing and rodent populations: evidence of negative interactions from a landscape scale experiment. Oecologia 143, 357–364 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1792-z

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