Community structure and demography of small-mammal populations in insular montane forests in southern India

Shanker, Kartik; Sukumar, Raman

doi:10.1007/s004420050585

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Six montane evergreen forest patches, ranging from 2 to 600 ha, were extensively sampled using 9 plots of 0.49-ha and 2 plots of 1-ha (see Shanker, 1998;Shanker & Sukumar, 1998). Grasslands were also sampled using 0.49-ha plots.…”

Section: Sampling Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intraspeci®c competition may also be a strong force and, as Connell (1983) points out, many other studies of small mammals have found that this is at least as important a force in small mammal populations. There is, in fact, some evidence for intraspeci®c competition in the R. rattus populations in these montane forest patches (Shanker & Sukumar, 1998). Predation may also play a role in the synchrony of small mammal populations between montane forest patches, and coupled with dispersal may strongly affect population processes in the ecosystem (Shanker & Sukumar, 1999); potential predators include many small carnivores, raptors and owls (Shanker & Sukumar, 1999).…”

Section: Interactions Between R Rattus and M Meltada In Montane Habmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of competition and habitat in structuring small mammal communities in a tropical montane ecosystem in southern India

Shanker

2001

Journal of Zoology

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Small mammals were sampled in two natural habitats (montane stunted evergreen forests and montane grassland) and four anthropogenic habitats (tea, wattle, bluegum and pine plantation) in the Upper Nilgiris in southern India. Of the species trapped, eight were in montane evergreen forests and three were in other habitats. Habitat discrimination was studied in the rodents Rattus rattus and Mus famulus and the shrew Suncus montanus in the montane forest habitat. Multivariate tests on ®ve variables (canopy cover, midstorey density, ground cover, tree density, canopy height) showed that R. rattus uses areas of higher tree density and lower canopy cover. Suncus montanus and M. famulus use habitat with higher tree density and ground cover and lower canopy height. Multivariate tests did not discriminate habitat use between the species. Univariate tests, however, showed that M. famulus uses areas of higher tree density than R. rattus and S. montanus. Rattus rattus was the dominant species in the montane forest, comprising 60.9% of total density, while the rodent Millardia meltada was the dominant species in the grassland. Studies of spatial interaction between these two species in habitats where they coexisted showed neither overlap nor avoidance between the species. Rattus rattus, however, did use areas of lower ground cover than did M. meltada. The analysis of spatial interactions between the species, habitat discrimination and use, and the removal experiments suggest that interspeci®c competition may not be a strong force in structuring these small mammal communities. There are distinct patterns in the use of different habitats by some species, but microhabitat selection and segregation is weak. Other factors such as intraspeci®c competition may play a more important role in these communities.

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Section: Sampling Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interactions Between R Rattus and M Meltada In Montane Habmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of competition and habitat in structuring small mammal communities in a tropical montane ecosystem in southern India

Shanker

2001

Journal of Zoology

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“…Its ubiquitous presence in even the smallest of human settlements has earned it the reputation of a pest, necessitating frequent eradication attempts. It is a native species in the Western Ghats and described as the dominant species in the small mammal community (Shanker and Sukumar, 1998;Ramachandran, 2013). …”

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confidence: 99%

Commensalism facilitates gene flow in mountains: a comparison between two Rattus species

Varudkar

Ramakrishnan

2015

Heredity

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A Varudkar and U RamakrishnanSmall mammal dispersal is strongly affected by geographical barriers. However, commensal small mammals may be passively transported over large distances and strong barriers by humans (often with agricultural products). This pattern should be especially apparent in topographically complex landscapes, such as mountain ranges, where valleys and/or peaks can limit dispersal of less vagile species. We predict that commensal species would have lower genetic differentiation and higher migration rates than related non-commensals in such landscapes. We contrasted population genetic differentiation in two sympatric Rattus species (R. satarae and R. rattus) in the Western Ghats mountains in southern India. We sampled rats from villages and adjacent forests in seven locations (20-640 km apart). Capture-based statistics confirmed that R. rattus is abundant in human settlements in this region, whereas R. satarae is non-commensal and found mostly in forests. Population structure analyses using~970-bp mitochondrial control region and 17 microsatellite loci revealed higher differentiation for the non-commensal species (R. satarae F-statistics = 0.420, 0.065, R. rattus F-statistics = 0.195, 0.034; mitochondrial DNA, microsatellites, respectively). Genetic clustering analyses confirm that clusters in R. satarae are more distinct and less admixed than those in R. rattus. R. satarae shows higher slope for isolation-by-distance compared with R. rattus. Although mode of migration estimates do not strongly suggest higher rates in R. rattus than in R. satarae, they indicate that migration over long distances could still be higher in R. rattus. We suggest that association with humans could drive the observed pattern of differentiation in the commensal R. rattus, consequently impacting not only their dispersal abilities, but also their evolutionary trajectories. INTRODUCTIONHumans present a strong evolutionary force, driving the trajectories of several animal and plant species closely associated with them, called commensals or synanthropes (Matisoo-Smith, 2009;Zeder, 2012). These species are believed to be intermediate between being wild and being domesticated (Vigne, 2011;Zeder, 2012) and include some of the world's most cosmopolitan species such as the house mouse (Mus musculus), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and house crow (Corvus splendens).Commensals benefit from human interactions through exploitation of anthropogenic ecosystems for food and shelter. In addition, human-mediated transport of founding individuals over long distances results in large geographical ranges for these species and colonisation of new areas, which would otherwise be inaccessible (Cucchi and Vigne, 2006;Jones et al., 2012). Consequently, human activities could promote their diffusion by eliminating ecological, as well as landscape barriers, thereby aiding in 'jump dispersal' across longer distances and potent barriers (Schrey et al., 2014).Of the prominent landscape features that act as barriers ...

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“…Increased populations occur at this time when food is thus most abundant. Hence, as suggested by Madsen and Shine (1999), and Shanker and Sukumar (1999), the murid populations in this study appear to be climaticallydriven indicating that population fluctuations are linked to food availability in the rainforest.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Variations in population sizes of five rodent taxa across a habitat gradient in the Sinharaja rainforest, Sri Lanka

Wijesinghe¹

2005

Zoos Print J.

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Community structure and demography of small-mammal populations in insular montane forests in southern India

Cited by 20 publications

References 41 publications

The role of competition and habitat in structuring small mammal communities in a tropical montane ecosystem in southern India

The role of competition and habitat in structuring small mammal communities in a tropical montane ecosystem in southern India

Commensalism facilitates gene flow in mountains: a comparison between two Rattus species

Variations in population sizes of five rodent taxa across a habitat gradient in the Sinharaja rainforest, Sri Lanka

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