Effects of cattle grazing on small mammal communities in the Hulunber meadow steppe

PeerJ

article

Chan Cao¹  Ling-Ying Shuai¹  Xiao-Ping Xin³  Zhi-Tao Liu⁴  Yan-Ling Song¹  Zhi-Gao Zeng¹ 

[1] Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences;University of Chinese Academy of Sciences;Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences;College of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Normal University

关键词: Hulunber;    Grazing;    Small mammals;    Meadow steppe;    Diversity;    Intermediate disturbance hypothesis;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.2349

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Small mammals play important roles in many ecosystems, and understanding their response to disturbances such as cattle grazing is fundamental for developing sustainable land use strategies. However, how small mammals respond to cattle grazing remains controversial. A potential cause is that most of previous studies adopt rather simple experimental designs based solely on the presence/absence of grazing, and are thus unable to detect any complex relationships between diversity and grazing intensity. In this study, we conducted manipulated experiments in the Hulunber meadow steppe to survey small mammal community structures under four levels of grazing intensities. We found dramatic changes in species composition in native small mammal communities when grazing intensity reached intermediate levels (0.46 animal unit/ha). As grazing intensity increased, Spermophilus dauricus gradually became the single dominant species. Species richness and diversity of small mammals in ungrazed and lightly grazed (0.23 animal unit/ha) area were much higher than in intermediately and heavily grazed area. We did not detect a humped relationship between small mammal diversity and disturbance levels predicted by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH). Our study highlighted the necessity of conducting manipulated experiments under multiple grazing intensities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY