Regional and local determinants of rodent assemblages in agroecosystems of the Argentine Pampas

GONZÁLEZ FISCHER, CM; CAVIA, R; PICASSO, P; BILENCA, DN

JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY

ALLIANCE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP DIVISION ALLEN PRESS

Lugar: Lawrence; Año: 2017

0022-2372

p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; }p.western { font-family: "Calibri",serif; }p.cjk { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.ctl { font-family: "Calibri"; }a:link { color: rgb(0, 0, 255); }a.ctl:link { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }Here,we characterize and compare rodent assemblages from crop fields andrangelands of the four4 Pampa districts included in Buenos Airesprovince, (Argentina), in order toanalyzse the role of regional context, land use, and vegetationstructure in determining the structure of the rodent assemblages atthe plot scale.Habitat generalist species (Calomyslauchaand Musmusculus)tendedto be more abundant in crop fields, whereas habitat specialists(Akodonazaraeand Oxymycterusrufus)tended to be more abundant in rangelands. However, the degree ofspatial segregation between habitat generalists and specialists andthe associations between particular rodent species and land usediffered among districts. The abundance of the dominant species (C.lauchaand A.azarae)was positively associated with vegetation height. We also found apositive association between the abundance of the dominant species ina certain land use and the representation of that land use in thePampa district, which suggests an effect of the regional context onlocal assemblages. Our results show that the structure of the rodentassemblage in a certain plot is the result of the interaction betweenthe district the plot is in and the land use (and management) it isunder. Future studies could shed light to the mechanisms behind thedistrict effect observed in this study.