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- Title
Effects of Long-Term Habitat Protection on Montane Small Mammals: Are Sorex araneus and S. minutus More Sensitive Than Previously Considered?
- Authors
Benedek, Ana Maria; Lazăr, Anamaria; Cic, Niculina Viorica; Cocîrlea, Maria Denisa; Sîrbu, Ioan
- Abstract
Protection of natural areas by restricting human activities aims to preserve plant and animal populations and whole communities, ensuring the conservation of biological diversity and enhancement of ecosystem services. Therefore, it is expected that the longer the protection, the stronger the desired effects. We evaluated the responses of small mammals at the population and community levels under protection in the southern Carpathian Mountains. We surveyed small mammals for five years in sites with long- and short-term protection and non-protected. Besides protection status, we included elevation, habitat heterogeneity, and the month of survey as predictors in our models. As response variables, we considered abundance, presence, species composition and species richness. Community abundance responded to all four predictors and species composition was influenced by protection status and month of study. The shrews Sorex araneus and S. minutus had positive responses to protection, both in terms of abundance and relative abundance (their ratio within the community). Our results suggest that overall, montane small mammal communities respond positively to long-term protection, especially S. araneus and S. minutus. These shrew species are considered habitat generalists, but they appear to be in fact sensitive to the habitat quality enhanced through protection.
- Subjects
TRANSYLVANIAN Alps (Romania); CARPATHIAN Mountains; HABITAT conservation; BIODIVERSITY conservation; MAMMAL populations; MAMMAL communities; ANIMAL populations; HABITATS
- Publication
Diversity (14242818), 2022, Vol 14, Issue 1, p38
- ISSN
1424-2818
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/d14010038