The effect of neighbourhood on rodent comunities: an example from Pampean agroecosystems

FRASCHINA, JIMENA; LEÓN, VANINA A.; BUSCH, MARÍA

Landscape Research

Taylor & Francis

Año: 2017 vol. 42 p. 533 - 542

0142-6397

Pampean region agroecosystems are devoted to agricultural and farmingactivities, but in the crop field matrix there are relicts of remnant naturalhabitats. Poultry farms mainly harbour commensal species as house miceand rats, which are rarely present in surrounding habitats. We assessed ifneighbourhood to poultry farms affect the presence of Mus musculus in cropfields and their borders, and if rodent community in poultry farms is influencedby the species present in surrounding crop fields and borders. We found thathabitat had a significant effect on the abundance of M. musculus. This speciesshowed higher abundance in poultry farms than in crop field borders. Calomyslaucha was the unique native species that was captured in farm sheds. Wefound higher abundance of native species in crop field borders than in cropfields independent of the proximity to the poultry farms. We conclude thatrodent communities in poultry farms are little influenced by the surroundings,and show a dominance of M. musculus independently of the presence of nativerodent species in neighbour habitats. On the other hand, farms do not exportM. musculus to surrounding habitats, and borders only function as corridorsfor dispersal among farms, while crop fields are rarely used.