Are the closed landfills recovered habitats for small rodents? A case study in a riparian site, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

The establishment of landfills in urban areas leads to extensive disturbances. Their development after landfill closure depends on the characteristics of the soil cover, the surrounding communities and the dispersal of plants and animals. This study was carried out in a landfill closed in 2004, surrounded by an urban area, freshwater marshes and a riparian forest. The aim of this study was to determine the role that the closed landfill may play in maintaining rodent communities typical of this zone and its relation to characteristics of the sites. Four rodent and plant samplings were carried out from December 2005 to September 2006 at five sites inside the landfill: three filled cells and two areas of the riparian margin. We recorded a total of 433 individual rodents. The rodent community of the closed landfill included species typical of rural, riparian and rural habitats: Akodon azarae (358), Oligoryzomys flavescens (32), Deltamys kempi (14), Rattus rattus (14), Cavia aperea (11) and Scapteromys aquaticus (4). Rodent species composition varied among sites, but A. azarae was usually the dominant species. We found a rich rodent community mostly composed of wild species. The relictual riparian margin may have served as a major refuge for native rodent community while the landfill was in operation, and after closure it possibly acted as a source for some species to colonize the covered cells.

Modelling relative abundance of Oligoryzomys flavescens, an Orthohantavirus reservoir, in an endemic hantavirus pulmonary syndrome zone

“…O. flavescens was found to be ubiquitous throughout the study area, with highest abundances in the Rolling and Inland Pampas as described elsewhere (Fernández et al, 2012). As observed in our study, other studies conducted in several sites in the Pampas ecoregion have also found that O. flavescens is seldom numerically dominating a small mammal community (Carballido et al, 2011; Maroli et al, 2018; Mills et al, 1991). In contrast, O. flavescens is generally more abundant and often numerically dominant in the Delta ecoregion (Maroli et al, 2021; Massa et al, 2013; Vadell & Gómez Villafañe, 2016).…”

New data about home range and movements of Oligoryzomys flavescens (Rodentia: Cricetidae) help to understand the spread and transmission of Andes virus that causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

“…This rodent species acts as reservoir for three genotypes of Andes orthohantavirus (ANDV), the main causative agent of HPS in Argentina (Alonso et al, ; López, Padula, Rossi, Lazaro, & Frenze‐Fernández, ; Martinez et al, ; Rivera et al, ). Population dynamics of O. flavescens was studied in natural (Gómez Villafañe, Expósito, San Martín, Picca, & Busch, ; Vadell, Bellomo, San Martín, Padula, & Gómez Villafañe, ; Vadell & Gómez Villafañe, ), agricultural (Busch & Kravetz, ; Mills, Ellis, McKee, Maiztegui, & Childs, ; Miño et al, ) and urban ecosystems (Carballido, Arístide, Busch, Cittadino, & Gómez Villafañe, ; Cavia, Cueto, & Suárez, ; Muschetto, Cueto, Cavia, Padula, & Suárez, ) of the Central region of Argentina. However, movement ecology of O. flavescens is poorly studied and its home range is still unreported.…”

Informal urban green space: A trilingual systematic review of its role for biodiversity and trends in the literature

“…Less direct disturbance may contribute to higher species numbers (Dana, 2002;Schadek et al, 2008) by preserving vegetation communities valuable for conservation (Lenzin et al, 2007). Different aspects of vegetation were regarded as important, especially vegetation structure (Fernandez-Juricic, 2000;Florencia Carballido et al, 2011;Geibert, 1980;Strauss and Biedermann, 2006), vegetation as a food source (Eremeeva and Sushchev, 2005;Kazemi et al, 2011;Tommasi et al, 2004), and vegetation (including tree) cover (Ichinose, 2006;Itagawa et al, 2010;Luther et al, 2008;Pennington et al, 2008). Biodiversity was found to increase with site age (Crowe, 1979;Jantunen et al, 2006;Kim and Lee, 2005), distance from the city center (Vakhlamova et al, 2014;Wahlbrink and Zucchi, 1994;Zorenko, 2003), and habitat diversity (Dallimer et al, 2012b;Murgui, 2009), while it was negatively affected by sealed site surface (e.g., hard surfaces such as asphalt that can impede seedling growth) and substrate (Dallimer et al, 2012b;Francis and Hoggart, 2008;Godefroid et al, 2007).…”