Influence of vegetation type and prescribed fire onPeromyscusabundance in a longleaf pine ecosystem

Abstract

Prescribed fire temporarily can alter food and cover resources for ground-dwelling wildlife, potentially leading to changes in animal abundance. Small mammals are an important ecosystem component in many terrestrial communities and depend on ground-level vegetation most commonly affected by prescribed fire. In this complex system of food and cover availability where easier access to food might compromise cover, and vice versa, it is imperative to study postfire habitat use by mice and other grounddwelling wildlife. We evaluated effects of time since burn and vegetation type on Peromyscus spp. abundance in a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystem in Fort Bragg Military Installation, North Carolina, USA, during 2011 and 2012. We trapped in 5 vegetation types and captured 208 individual Peromyscus. Peromyscus abundance did not differ among 1, 2, and 3 years postburn upland pine vegetation types, although we noted a trend of decreasing abundance as time since burn increased; however, abundance was greater in the lowland hardwood vegetation type than in open areas (i.e., military drop zones). The lack of an effect of time since burn could be due to the short fire-return interval at the study site, which limited the time for postburn shifts in the composition of the understory from herbaceous to woody plant species. Therefore, we suggest future research in the longleaf pine ecosystem incorporate a wider time frame to assess short-and long-term effects of fire on small mammal populations. Ó 2017 The Wildlife Society.

Seed depredation negates the benefits of midstory hardwood removal on longleaf pine seedling establishment

“…No evidence was discovered that would lead us to believe that vertebrate seed predators breached the exclosures. Further, we did not capture any small mammals, a result that is consistent with Sasmal et al (), who determined that small mammal abundance was extremely low in frequently burned longleaf pine communities. This result, combined with our observations of ants and millipedes consuming seeds, leads us to believe that invertebrate seed predators were the primary seed predator in excluded plots and likely contributed to seed depredation in all plots.…”

Setting an evolutionary trap: could the hider strategy be maladaptive for white-tailed deer?

“…Sasmal et al. ( 2017 ) showed that Peromyscus spp. abundance was greater in drainages than in the frequently burned upland pine forests.…”

Tree encroachment impacts on seed predator selection and seedling establishment in degraded pine woodlands

“…We suspect the selection for smaller-seeded species was likely influenced by the local seed predator population. Although seed predator identity was not recorded in this study, small-mammal abundance has been shown to be extremely low in frequently burned pine woodlands (Sasmal et al, 2017), and circumstantial evidence suggests that invertebrates are acting as the primary seed predators at our stand (Willis et al, 2019). Based on this assumption, the low occurrence of Quercus nigra granivory may be explained by the principles of optimal foraging theory, as foraging invertebrates may have avoided acorns due to their thick seed coat or size (Rey et al, 2002;Lichti et al, 2017 One caveat to our interpretation of granivory is the assumption that seed predators are not benefiting tree recruitment through secondary dispersal (Vander Wall et al, 2005).…”