Abstract
The impact of invasive bank vole (Myodes glareolus) and greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula) on indigenous Irish small mammals, varies with season and habitat. We caught bank voles in deciduous woodland, young coniferous plantations and open habitats such as rank grass. The greater white-toothed shrew was absent from deciduous woods and plantations but did use open habitats with low level cover in addition to field margins. Numbers of both invasive species in field margins during summer were higher than in the previous spring. The indigenous wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) and pygmy shrew (Sorex minutus), differed in degrees of negative response to invasive species. Wood mice with bank voles in hedgerows had reduced recruitment and lower peak abundance. This effect was less extreme where both invasive species were present. Wood mice numbers along field margins and open habitats were significantly depressed by the presence of the bank vole with no such effect in deciduous woodland or coniferous plantations. Summer recruitment in pygmy shrews was reduced in hedgerows with bank voles. Where greater white-toothed shrew was present, the pygmy shrew was entirely absent from field margins. Species replacement due to invasive small mammals is occurring in their major habitat i.e. field margins and open habitats where there is good ground cover. Pygmy shrew will probably disappear from these habitats throughout Ireland. Wood mice and possibly pygmy shrew may survive in deciduous woodland and conifer plantations. Mitigation of impacts of invasive species should include expansion of woodland in which native species can survive.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alibhai SK, Gipps JHW (1985) The population dynamics of bank voles. Symp Zool Soc Lond 55:277–313
Angel A, Wanless RM, Cooper J (2009) Review of impacts of the introduced house mouse on islands in the Southern Ocean: are mice equivalent to rats? Biol Inv 11:1743–1754
Beier P, Noss RF (1998) Do habitat corridors provide connectivity? Conserv Biol 12:1241–1252
Bennett AF (1990) Habitat corridors and conservation of small mammal in a fragmented forest environment. Landsc Ecol 4:109–122
Borroto-Paez R (2009) Invasive mammals in Cuba: an overview. Biol Inv 11:2279–2290
Cabot D (1999) The new naturalist: Ireland. Harper Collins, London
Cameron A (1994) Effect of afforestation on neighbouring areas of blanket bog. Unpubl. PhD thesis, Queen’s University Belfast
Caut S, Angulo E, Courchamp F (2008) Dietary shift of an invasive predator: rats, seabirds and sea turtles. J Appl Ecol 45:428–437
Clout MN, Russell JC (2008) The invasion ecology of mammals: a global perspective. Wildl Res 35:180–184
Courchamp F, Chapuis J-L, Pascal M (2003) Mammal invaders on islands: impact, control and control impact. Biol Rev 78:347–383
Cruikshank M, Tomlinson R (1990) Northern Ireland Peatland Survey. Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (Countryside and Wildlife Branch). Belfast. Northern Ireland
Debinsky DM, Holt RD (2000) A survey and overview of habitat fragmentation experiments. Conserv Biol 14:342–355
Drake DR, Hunt TL (2009) Invasive rodents on islands: integrating historical and contemporary ecology. Biol Inv 11:1483–1487
Dunn AM (2009) Parasites and biological invasions. Adv Parasitol 68:161–184
EEA (2000) CORINE land cover 2000. European Environment Agency. Available from http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/COR0-landcover
Ellenbroek FJM (1980) Interspecific competition in the shrews Sorex araneus and Sorex minutus (Soricidae, Insectivora): a population study of the Irish pygmy shrew. J Zool 192:119–136
Eubanks MD (2001) Estimates of the direct and indirect effects of red imported fire ants on biological control in field crops. Biol Control 21:35–43
Gibson L, Lynam AJ, Bradshaw CJA, He F, Bickford DP, Woodruff DS, Bumrungsri S, Laurance WF (2013) Near-complete extinction of native small mammal fauna 25 years after forest fragmentation. Science 341:1508–1510
Glen AS, Dickman CR (2008) Niche overlap between marsupial and eutherian carnivores: does competition threaten the endangered spotted-tailed quoll? J Appl Ecol 45:700–707
Grainger JP, Fairley JS (1978) Studies on the biology of the pygmy shrew Sorex minutus in the west of Ireland. J Zool 186:109–141
Gurnell J, Rushton SP, Lurz PWW, Sainsbury AW, Nettleton P, Shirley MDF, Bruemmer C, Geddes N (2006) Squirrel poxvirus: landscape scale strategies for managing disease threat. Biol Conserv 131:287–295
Harris DB (2009) Review of negative effects of introduced rodents on small mammals on islands. Biol Inv 11:1611–1630
Harris S, Yalden DW (eds) (2008) Mammals of the British Isles: handbook, 4th edn. The Mammal Society, Southampton
Huitu O, Norrdahl K, Korpimaki E (2003) Landscape effects on temporal and spatial properties of vole population fluctuations. Oecologia 135:209–220
IBM Corp (2011) IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp
Kausrud KL, Mysterud A, Steen H (2008) Linking climate change to lemming cycles. Nature 456:93–97
Matter SF, Hanski I, Gyllenberg M (2002) A test of the metapopulation model of the species–area relationship. J Biogeog 29:977–983
McDevitt AD, Rambau R, O’Brien J, McDevitt CD, Hayden TJ, Searle JB (2009) Genetic variation in the Irish pygmy shrews Sorex minutus (Soricomorpha: Soricidae): implications for colonization history. Biol J Linn Soc 97:918–927
McDevitt AD, Vega R, Rambau RV, Yannic G, Herman JS, Hayden TJ, Searle JB (2011) Colonization of Ireland: revisiting ‘the pygmy shrew syndrome’ using mitochondrial, Y chromosomal and microsatellite markers. Heredity 108:547–557
Meharg MJ, Montgomery WI, Dunwoody T (1990) Trophic relationships of common frog (Rana temporaria) and pigmy shrew (Sorex minutus) in Ireland. J Zool 222:1–17
Mitchell F, Ryan M (1997) Reading the Irish landscape, 3rd edn. Town House and Country House, Dublin
Montgomery WI (1989a) Population regulation in the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus. I. Density dependence in the annual cycle of abundance. J Anim Ecol 58:465–475
Montgomery WI (1989b) Population regulation in the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus. II. Density dependence in spatial distribution and reproduction. J Anim Ecol 58:477–494
Montgomery WI, Dowie M (1993) The distribution and population regulation of the wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus on field boundaries of pastoral farmland. J Appl Ecol 30:783–791
Montgomery WI, Lundy ML, Reid N (2012) Invasional meltdown: evidence for unexpected consequences and cumulative impacts of multispecies invasions. Biol Inv 14:1111–1125
Panzacchi M, Lindell JDC, Melis C, Odden M, Odden J, Gorini L, Anderson R (2010) Effect of land-use on small mammal abundance and diversity in a forest-farmland mosaic landscape in south eastern Norway. For Ecol Manage 259:1536–1545
Peltonen A, Hanski I (1991) Patterns of island occupancy explained by colonization and extinction rates in shrews. Ecology 72:1698–1708
Preston DL, Henderson JS, Johnson PTJ (2012) Community ecology of invasions: direct and indirect effects of multiple invasive species on aquatic communities. Ecology 93:1254–1261
Ramsey DSL, Parkes JP, Will D, Hanson CC, Campbell KJ (2011) Quantifying the success of feral cat eradication, San Nicolas Island, California. N Z J Ecol 35:163–173
Rodrıguez C, Torres R, Drummond H (2006) Eradicating introduced mammals from a forested tropical island. Biol Conserv 130:98–105
SigmaPlot (2006) SigmaPlot for windows, version 10.0. Systat Software, Inc., San Jose, CA
Simberloff D (2009) Rats are not the only introduced rodents producing ecosystem impacts on islands. Biol Inv 11:1735–1742
Simberloff D, Von Holle B (1999) Positive interactions of nonindigenous species: invasional meltdown? Biol Inv 5:179–192
Smart SM, Bunce RGH, Stuart RC (2001) An assessment of the potential of British hedges to act as corridors and refuges for ancient woodland indicator plants. In: Barr C, Petit S (eds) Hedgerows of the world: their ecological functions in different landscapes. IALE UK Proceedings, pp. 137–146
St Clair JJH (2011) The impacts of invasive rodents on island invertebrates. Biol Conserv 144:68–81
Stokes VL, Banks PB, Pech RP, Spratt DM (2009) Competition in an invaded rodent community reveals black rats as a threat to native bush rats in littoral rainforest of south-eastern Australia RID D-4954-2011. J Appl Ecol 46:1239–1247
Stuart P, Mirimin L, Cross TF, Sleeman DP, Buckley NJ, Telfer S, Birtles RJ, Kotlik P, Searle JB (2007) The origin of Irish bank voles Clethrionomys glareolus assessed by mitochondrial DNA analysis. Irish Nat J 28:440–446
Tosh DG, Lusby J, Montgomery WI, O’Halloran J (2008) First record of greater white-toothed shrew Crocidura russula in Ireland. Mammal Rev 38:321–326
Turchin P, Hanski I (1997) An empirically based model for latitudinal gradient in vole population dynamics. Am Nat 149:842–874
Watts CHS (1969) The regulation of woodmouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) numbers in Wytham Woods, Berkshire. J Anim Ecol 38:285–304
Weidenhamer JD, Callaway RM (2010) Direct and indirect effects of invasive plants on soil chemistry and ecosystem function. J Chem Ecol 36:59–69
White TA, Lundy MG, Montgomery WI, Montgomery S, Perkins SE, Lawton C, Meehan JM, Hayden TJ, Heckel G, Reid N, Searle JB (2012) Range expansion in an invasive small mammal: influence of life-history and habitat quality. Biol Invasions 14:2203–2215
Yalden D (1999) The history of British mammals. Poyser Natural History, London
Acknowledgments
NR was supported by the Natural Heritage Research Partnership (NHRP) between the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and Quercus, Queen’s University Belfast. We are grateful to landowners across Munster for access to their property during fieldwork.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Montgomery, W.I., Montgomery, S.S.J. & Reid, N. Invasive alien species disrupt spatial and temporal ecology and threaten extinction in an insular, small mammal community. Biol Invasions 17, 179–189 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-014-0717-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-014-0717-y