Effects of Long-Term Habitat Protection on Montane Small Mammals: Are Sorex araneus and S. minutus More Sensitive Than Previously Considered?

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.

Shrews Under-Represented in Fruit Farms and Homesteads

“…In the Carpathian Mountains, S. araneus accounted for 0.8%, and all insectivores for only 1.3%, of the total number of small mammal individuals trapped [ 16 ]. This contrasted with the work of Benedek et al [ 17 ], who reported that the proportion of all insectivorous species in the Carpathians was 27.4%, while S. araneus alone was 23.6%. This is also much higher than the 8–15% reported by Bryja and Rehak [ 18 ].…”

“…In agricultural habitats, shrews are very important as model species, as they are more likely to be contaminated by various compounds used as insecticides, plant protection products, etc., and, consequently, they show higher contamination levels [ 47 ]. Shrews also respond positively to habitat protection measures [ 17 , 48 ] and can therefore demonstrate the effectiveness of the measures.…”