What happened to the house mouse: Modelling the occupancy of Mus musculus in an argentine city considering its urban growth

ANTONELLI, CECILIA ROCÍO; SAN MIGUEL, TOMÁS VALENTÍN; DE ANGELO, CARLOS; PRIOTTO, JOSÉ; PROVENSAL, MARÍA CECILIA; GOMEZ, MARÍA DANIELA

LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2022 vol. 227

0169-2046

ronmental(NDVI and distance to water bodies) and anthropogenic (proportion of paved streets, distances toillegal dumpsites and railways) variables and to explore the differences in occupancy according to temporalchanges of urban growth. We used occupancy models to obtain predictive maps of M. musculus distribution inhabitats with open spatial arrangements of the city of Río Cuarto in periods 2001-2003 and 2020, which wasvalidated on the ground. The obtained map for the first period showed that the highest occupancy probabilitiesagreed with paved areas following a gradient to the outskirt of the city, where the lowest occupancy valuescoincided with those areas without any buildings and with high values of vegetation cover. The obtained map for2020 conditional on the actual presence of an open spatial arrangement habitat, showed that the house mouseexpanded its distribution range in the city, with low-medium probability values in zones where it was absent inthe previous period. Data obtained from field validation would support the reliability of our predictive map. Thiswork reinforces the importance of integrating spatial analysis, environmental and anthropogenic variables andoccupancy data in an urban area. Mus musculus expanded its range of distribution in the city accompanying theincrease in urbanization that Río Cuarto has experienced in the last 20 years. Considering the importance of M.musculus as an indicator of environmental degradation in urban areas, local authorities have now a spatiallyexplicit tool to prioritize resources to detect vacant lots located in those areas predicted as mediumhigh occupancyprobabilities and direct control policies on them.