Small-mammal assemblage response to deforestation and afforestation in central China

Abstract

Deforestation is a major environmental issue driving the loss of animal and plant species. Afforestation has recently been promoted to conserve and restore Chinese forest ecosystems. We investigated the distribution of small-mammal assemblages in an area where forest and associated deforestation habitats dominate and in an agricultural area where afforestation is ongoing in the Loess Plateau of southern Ningxia Autonomous Region, P.R. China. Multiple trapping was used. Assemblages were defined based on the multinomial probability distribution and information theory. Species turnover between assemblages of deforested and afforested habitats was high, although no clear effect on species richness was observed. The two assemblages described along the deforestation gradient displayed higher diversity, whereas diversity was lower in assemblages identified in afforested habitats where Cricetulus longicaudatus, known agricultural pest in various areas of China, clearly dominated. The threatened Sorex cylindricauda and Eozapus setchuanus were recorded along the deforestation gradient but not in plantations. Therefore, habitats present along a deforestation succession in this part of Ningxia sustain a high diversity of small mammals and include species of conservation concern. At the present stage of its process (maximum 15 years), afforestation in southern Ningxia favours the dominance of an agricultural pest.

Transmission ecosystems ofEchinococcus multilocularisin China and Central Asia

“…All these transmission hotspots share the fact that a number of small mammal intermediate host species were prone to population outbreaks during the study period, indicated by large trapping success and small mammal activity indices (Giraudoux et al 1998; Raoul et al 2006, 2008). Small mammal population surges were also found in Narati and Baihaba in Xinjiang (China), however they appeared not to translate into human AE prevalence levels as large as in the other sites highlighted above.…”

Small mammal community response to early meadow–forest succession

“…It has been shown that sampling in all habitats is important for understanding small mammal community changes in forest-farmland ecosystems (Panzacchi et al 2010). For example, quite unexpectedly, newly afforested sites may harbour a poor small mammal diversity in comparison to habitat undergoing deforestation -for the first 15 years at least, newly afforested habitats in China were found to be dominated by agricultural pest species (Raoul et al 2008). For the first four years of afforestation, small mammals do not tend to react to it, as could be the case in other types of disturbances that fragment their habitat (Johnson et al 2002).…”

A random forest approach for predicting the presence of Echinococcus multilocularis intermediate host Ochotona spp. presence in relation to landscape characteristics in western China

“…Small mammal species often exhibit specific preferences for optimal habitats, with species distributions influenced by the locations of these key habitats (Raoul et al ., 2008). Small mammal populations are shown to respond to optimal habitat availability, particularly the ratio of optimal habitat to total land area (Giraudoux et al ., 2003; Pleydell et al ., 2008).…”

“…This process is hypothesised to be significant for Em transmission (Giraudoux et al ., 1997), so that pathogen transmission may vary through time and space due to landscape modification. Elsewhere in China, small mammal spatial distributions are shown to be modified by landscape disturbances such as deforestation in Gansu (Giraudoux et al ., 1998), afforestation in Ningxia (Raoul et al ., 2008), and overgrazing and fencing practices on the Tibetan plateau (Wang et al ., 2004; Raoul et al ., 2006). …”