Small mammal abundance and seed predation across boundaries in a restored-grazed woodland interface

TABENI, SOLANA; MIGUEL, M. FLORENCIA; CAMPOS, CLAUDIA M.; CONA, MÓNICA

RESTORATION ECOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2017

1061-2971

Passive restoration is an effective tool for the maintenance and conservation of biodiversity. Often areas in recovery areimmersed in a matrix of land uses, in which the expansion and intensification of human activities exert new visible pressuresat their boundaries. The degree of connectivity between these areas and their peripheral lands can be analyzed by mobile linkspecies, organisms that actively move in the landscape by connecting areas to one another through their functional roles. Wefocus our design on the interface generated by the long-term restoration area and surrounding grazing lands.We analyze thechanges on boundary structure, small mammal abundance, and on the function of native seed dispersal by these vertebratespecies.We captured small mammals and determined seed removal of Prosopis flexuosa at three distances inside and outside afence that delineates passively restored and currently grazed areas. Our results indicate that small rodents find more suitablehabitats at the site under restoration than in grazing lands. The restored-grazing interface shows a decrease in small mammalabundance fromthe protected area to the grazed lands. Froma functional perspective, an increase in smallmammal abundanceresults in an increase in their seed removal activity with implications for seed fate, because the long-term recovery of vegetationcould enhance seed predation on a native tree species.