Factors determining the abundance and distribution of rodents in a shrub-steppe ecosystem: the role of shrubs

Abstract

This study addressed the relative importances of shrub "resources" on a rodent community in a sagebrush dominated shrub-steppe ecosystem in southwestern Wyoming. Direct effects of shrubs (i.e., providing rodents with "food and cover") were assessed by removing shrubs from a 1.25 ha study plot and monitoring both rodent populations and their food resources. Shrub architecture and shrub-related food resources were found to be unimportant to deermice (Peromyscus maniculatus), Great Basin pocket mice (Perognathus parvus) northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster) and Uinta ground squirrels (Spermophilus armatus), as shrub removal caused no significant changes in population sizes, sex ratios or age structure. Least chipmunks (Eutamias minimus) responded to shrub removal by leaving the plot and moving into adjacent shrubland. The montane vole (Microtus montanus) population showed a slight increase following shrub removal. Shrub removal did not alter the abundance of major rodent food resources on the plot (percent cover of herbaceous vegetation, soil seed reserves and ground-dwelling arthropods). Micrometeorological data suggested that shrubs did not significantly ameliorate a nocturnal rodent's micro-climate, but may have affected diurnal rodents' thermal loading rates by removing shade. While shrub architecture and food resources do not directly affect most of the rodents in this shrub-steppe ecosystem, shrubs may be important to rodents in a long-term time frame. Shrubs provide "safe sites" for germination and growth of herbaceous vegetation, thereby enhancing the diversity of the potential rodent food resources.