Small mammals and ungulates respond to and interact with revegetation processes following dam removal

McCaffery, Rebecca; Jenkins, Kurt J.; Cendejas-Zarelli, Sara; Happe, Patricia J.; Sager-Fradkin, Kimberly A.

doi:10.1016/j.fooweb.2020.e00159

Cited by 11 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 64 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In restored sites, plant recovery was usually fast (Laslier et al, 2019) and was positively affected by mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi (Cortese and Bunn, 2017) while being threatened by non-native and competitive plant species (Orr and Stanley, 2006;Tullos et al, 2016). In turn, only few studies have investigated the effects of dam removals on the terrestrial fauna (e.g., megafauna, birds; Stephens, 2017;McCaffery et al, 2018;McCaffery et al, 2020). Concerning macroinvertebrates, some evidence suggest strong declines in spiders within four years postremoval (Sullivan et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast but transient recovery of aquatic and terrestrial communities after a large dam removal

Dézerald,

Roussel,

Lanoë

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

IntroductionEcological restoration through dam removals receives increasing attention from scientists, environmental managers and policy makers. However, most dam removal projects focus on small structures (< 10 m in height) and on few ecosystem compartments at a time (e.g. river morphology, reservoir sedimentation, aquatic invertebrates, terrestrial vegetation), but rarely aquatic and riparian ecosystems simultaneously.MethodsWe explored the joint taxonomic recovery (temporal patterns in α- and β-diversity) of three communities after the removal of the Vezins dam (36 m in height; Sélune River, France): aquatic benthic invertebrates, riparian invertebrates, and the riparian vegetation. These communities were monitored yearly, during three years after the dam removal, on sites located within (n = 3; restored sites) and outside (n = 3; two upstream and one downstream; non-impounded sites) the former reservoir.ResultsResults showed a fast recovery of the three ecological communities, as patterns in α-diversity between restored and non-impounded sites were not necessarily different from each other 1.5 years after complete reservoir dewatering. The mean number of species or morphospecies (± standard deviation) reached up to 28.2 ± 5.2, 17.0 ± 2.3 and 77.5 ± 11.2 for the aquatic invertebrates, and the riparian vegetation and invertebrates, respectively. Relative to the sampled area, the riparian invertebrates were the most diversified of all ecological communities with > 500 taxa (i.e., pooling all sites and years). In addition, in some restored sites, α-diversity kept increasing over time while species turnover (β-diversity) remained high after three years for all ecological communities suggesting a transient recovery (i.e., still facing temporal changes in species diversity and composition). This recovery was mediated by the identity of the ecological community as inter-annual changes in α- and β-diversity of the riparian vegetation were less pronounced compared to those of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates. This recovery depended also on site-specific features as the most distant restored site from the former dam had more time for recovery following the slow reservoir dewatering and through increased sedimentation in the downstream site.DiscussionDifferential patterns of recovery in α- and β-diversity found in this study are discussed in light of species functional traits and ecosystem functioning.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast but transient recovery of aquatic and terrestrial communities after a large dam removal

Dézerald,

Roussel,

Lanoë

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The monitoring for the relative abundance of the small mammals was performed with snap-traps from 1991 to 2016. It consisted of two schemes: occurring in two transects per site with one in forest and one in meadow (1), and with 11 transects per site: one in meadow and 10 in different forest habitats (2).…”

Section: The Small Mammal Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Small mammals play an important role in ecosystem functioning and various ecological processes. This role ranges from influence on a natural succession [1], through influence on plant and microorganism community composition and chemistry [2] to demographic processes of small mammal predators [3][4][5][6] and even population processes and behavior of directly unrelated species [7][8][9]. The effects of small mammals on demography of birds of prey are so strong that the analysis of the breeding performance of the latter can reveal large scale spatial-temporal patterns of population dynamics of the former [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Response of Owls to Dampening of the Population Cycles of the Small Mammals in Latvia

Avotiņš¹,

sen.²,

Kerus³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Strong numerical and functional response of owls to voles in cyclic environments is well known, but there is insufficient knowledge from boreonemoral region, in particular, with depleted populations of the small mammals. In this study we describe the dynamics of the small mammal population in Latvia from 1991 to 2016 and link them to owl population characteristics. We used food niche breadth, number of fledglings and population trends to describe the numerical response of six owl species to dampened small mammal population cycles. We found temporarily in-creasing food niche breadth in tawny and Ural owls. There were no other responses in tawny owl, whereas the breeding performance of three forest specialist species – pygmy, Tengmalm`s and Ural owls – were similar to vole crash years in Fennoscandia. Moreover, the populations of forest specialist owls are decreasing and the change in Ural owl can be attributed to the depletion of small mammal populations. We found evidence of carry-over effect in eagle owl arising from strong correlation of declining breeding performance with the small mammal abundance indices in previous autumn. We conclude that dampening of the small mammal population cycles is an important covariate to overwhelming impacts of habitat destruction with stronger response in more specialized (to prey or habitat) species.

show abstract

“…Small mammals play an important role in various ecological processes. This role ranges from influence on a natural succession [ 1 ] through influence on plant and microorganism community composition and chemistry [ 2 ] to demographic processes of small mammal predators [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ] and even population processes and the behavior of directly unrelated species [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Fluctuations in the availability of small mammals are known to affect the demography of several species of birds of prey, and the analysis of the breeding performance of the latter can reveal large-scale spatiotemporal patterns of population dynamics of the former [ 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Response of Owls to the Dampening of Small Mammal Population Cycles in Latvia

Avotiņš

Kerus²,

Auniņš

2023

Life

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Strong numerical and functional responses of owls to voles in cyclic environments are well known. However, there is insufficient knowledge from the boreonemoral region in particular, with depleted populations of small mammals. In this study, we describe the dynamics of the small mammal population in Latvia from 1991 to 2016 and link them to owl population characteristics. We used food niche breadth, number of fledglings, and population trends to lay out the numerical response of six owl species to dampened small mammal population cycles. We found temporarily increasing food niche breadth in tawny and Ural owls. There were no other responses in the tawny owl, whereas the breeding performance of three forest specialist species—pygmy, Tengmalm’s, and Ural owls—corresponded to the vole crash years in Fennoscandia. Moreover, the populations of forest specialist owls decreased, and the change in the Ural owl population can be attributed to the depletion of small mammal populations. We found evidence of a carry-over effect in the eagle owl arising from a strong correlation of declining breeding performance with the small mammal abundance indices in the previous autumn. We conclude that dampening of the small mammal population cycles is an important covariate of the likely effects of habitat destruction that needs to be investigated further, with stronger responses in more specialized (to prey or habitat) species.

show abstract

Small mammals and ungulates respond to and interact with revegetation processes following dam removal

Cited by 11 publications

References 64 publications

Fast but transient recovery of aquatic and terrestrial communities after a large dam removal

Fast but transient recovery of aquatic and terrestrial communities after a large dam removal

Numerical Response of Owls to Dampening of the Population Cycles of the Small Mammals in Latvia

Numerical Response of Owls to the Dampening of Small Mammal Population Cycles in Latvia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About