Small mammal responses to farming practices in central Argentinian agroecosystem: the use of herarchical occupancy models

GOMEZ, MARÍA DANIELA; GOIJMAN, ANDREA PAULA; CODA, JOSÉ A.; SERAFINI, VANESA NATALIA; PRIOTTO, JOSÉ W

Congreso; 6th International Conference of Rodent Biology and Management and 16th Rodents et Spatium; 2018

Organic farming is more environmentally friendly than conventional agriculture, promoting greater levels of habitat heterogeneity. Field borders could be more suitable for biodiversity in agricultural anthromes. Small mammals are crucial in these anthromes due to their contribution to food webs and seed consumption. We used hierarchical multiseason occupancy models to assess the effect of organic versus conventional farming on multiple small mammal species in agricultural anthromes of central Argentina. We modelled detectability and increased precision of estimates, overcoming deficiencies of previous studies. Small mammals were seasonally surveyed in 70 field borders (conventional) and 63 (organic) during two years. We were able to include less frequent specialist species, detecting a positive relationship with organic management possibly because of higher habitat quality of borders. Vegetation volume was the most important explanatory variable in both managements. Species? richness was greater under organic management mainly in spring when the habitat quality differences with conventional