Influence of vegetation structure, seasonality, and soil properties on rodent diversity and community assemblages in west Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Abstract

Rodent diversity and community assemblages are affected by several biotic and abiotic factors such as vegetation structure and seasonality. Vegetation structure particularly ground cover influences rodent diversity and community assemblages through provision of food resources and protection from predators. Such information is important for understanding species–habitat relationships for management and conservation. This study was conducted to determine the influence of vegetation structure, seasonality, and soil properties on species richness, abundance, community assemblages, and habitat association of rodents in west Mt Kilimanjaro. Rodent trapping was conducted using removal and capture–mark–recapture (CMR) methods with medium‐sized Sherman's live traps, snap, and Havarhart traps. Rodents were trapped during wet and dry seasons for three consecutive nights at 4 weeks intervals from April 2020 to March 2021. Environmental variables including vegetation structure, soil physical properties, and disturbance levels were recorded for each habitat type. Fourteen species of rodents were trapped in 25,956 trap nights. Rhabdomys pumilio, Praomys delectorum, and Lophuromys verhageni were the most dominant species across all habitats and seasons. L.verhageni occurred in all habitats while R.pumilio was restricted from occurring in montane forests. Moreover, species richness and abundance were influenced by habitat types, seasonality, soil type, and ground cover. Generally, both species richness and abundance were higher in fallows and montane forests and significantly lower in plantation forest and agricultural fields. In addition, rodent diversity was highest in fallows, followed by montane forests, and lowest in agricultural fields. Furthermore, rodents were associated with habitat types and vegetation structure forming two major community assemblages that significantly differed between habitats. Our study conclude that, community assemblages of rodents on Mt. Kilimanjaro were affected by functional spatial heterogeneity of the habitats occupied. Therefore, use of different habitats by rodents may be indicative of the landscape integrity and ecosystem changes based on species assemblages.

Breeding and demographic aspects of Montemys delectorum, an East African endemic rodent

“…Montemys delectorum was the most abundant small mammal species in the study area (Gebrezgiher et al, 2022; Stanley & Kihaule, 2016). This species has been recorded in high densities in forest habitats throughout East Africa and is known to be a forest specialist (Ademola et al, 2021; Cassola, 2016; Thomas et al, 2022). It is, therefore, not surprising that it was the dominant species in both montane forest sites in the Mount Meru forest reserve.…”

“…‘ Montemys’ refers to the animal's natural habitat, which is a ‘montane’ forest, which refers to the ‘high elevation’ of the biome. The species was thought to be endemic to the East Arc Mountains (Cassola, 2016), but its current distribution extends to the northern Tanzania Mountains, including Mount Kilimanjaro (Mulungu et al, 2008; Thomas et al, 2022) and Mount Meru (Gebrezgiher et al, 2022, 2023). Our observations from the current study show that the distribution of M. delectorum needs to be corrected so that it is considered an endemic rodent of the Eastern Africa Highlands as opposed to the East Arc Mountains alone.…”

“…East African Highlands such as Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon, the Eastern Arc Mountains and Mount Meru serve as potential refuges for a great array of rare and endemic vertebrates (Gebrezgiher et al, 2022; Mulungu et al, 2008; Stanley & Kihaule, 2016; Thomas et al, 2022). However, due to climate change and other human activities, the plight of montane species is increasing (Neate‐Clegg et al, 2018; Rogora et al, 2018; Willig & Presley, 2016).…”

Arthropod Ectoparasites of Two Rodent Species Occurring in Varied Elevations on Tanzania’s Second Highest Mountain

“…Altitudinal gradients reflect substantial changes in precipitation, temperature, humidity, soil, and vegetation, with extreme environmental conditions strongly influencing the physiology and survival rate of organisms [ 36 ]. These variations have been demonstrated to affect faunal distribution across different altitudes in different geographic regions worldwide [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. For example, small mammals’ distribution along elevation has been extensively studied throughout the world, and often shows a hump-shaped distribution pattern in which species richness and abundance peak at the mid-level elevations where the conditions are not too extreme (i.e., hot or cold) [ 37 , 38 , 39 ].…”

Corrigendum

“…In the recent article by Thomas et al ( 2022 ), the authors would like to correct the article title. The corrected article title is shown below and has been applied to the online version:…”