Agricultural land-use intensity and its effects on small mammals in the central region of Argentina

GOMEZ DANIELA; CODA JOSÉ; SIMONE IVANA; MARTÍNEZ JUAN JOSÉ; BONATTO FLORENCIA; STEINMANN AANDREA; PRIOTTO JOSÉ

Mammal Research

Springer

Año: 2015

2199-2401

Agriculture intensification is one of the mainthreats to biodiversity in agricultural systems. The effectivenessof conservation strategies in these systems depends mainlyon the compromise between biodiversity conservation andagricultural land use. The aim of this study was to assess theeffect of land-use intensity, characteristics of linear habitats(field borders) and their surrounding fields (landscape) onsmall mammal richness and abundance in agricultural systemsof Argentina. In autumn 2009, we performed a removal samplingin 60 traplines located in the field borders of high or lowland-use intensity regions. In traplines under high land-useintensity we found seven species while under low land-useintensity we found ten. Characteristic species of grasslandsand woodlands such as Monodelphis dimidiata, Thylamyspallidior, Necromys lasiurus and Graomys griseoflavus wereonly captured in traplines under low land-use intensity. Highernumbers of Calomys musculinus species (habitat generalist)were observed under high land-use intensity while Akodonazarae and Oxymycterus rufus species, known as habitat specialists,were more frequently found in the low land-use intensityregion. Border width and height, as well as land use ofboth sides of the border, were major variables for explainingsmall mammal abundances. Our results suggest that conservationof wide field borders with characteristics similar tothose of natural habitats would be crucial for sustainable managementof Pampean agricultural systems which hold highrichness and abundance of small mammal species.