Small mammal responses to pyric successional changes in eucalypt forest

Abstract

Sixteen 1-ha study plots covering five regeneration stages were simultaneously trapped five times over a 20-month period to provide data on small mammal response to vegetation changes following fire. Areas regenerating a fier fires from 9 years to 1 month before the investigation were sampled in a uniform open forest on a coastal sand plain. Two types ofunderstorey were recognized: one dominated by true forest shrubs with which Rattus fuscipes, Antechinus stuartii and Sminthopsis murina were associated, and another dominated by heath elements where the addition of Pseudomys novaehollandiae and Mus musculus produced a significantly more diverse small mammal community. The two communities exhibited different responses to post-fire vegetation changes.Rattus fuscipes was the most abundant species and showed a logistic growth in biomass. No resident populations were established in the first 3 years, but a rapid increase in biomass occurred from 3 to 5 years to plateau a fier 8 years. Regeneration age had the greatest effect on R. fuscipes biomass mediated through the amount of accumulated leaf litter with additional variation being attributed to several vegetation structure variables and plant species diversity.A replacement sequence in time was observed for species reaching their maximum abundance (P. novaehollandiae and/or M. musculus -* S. murina -» A. stuartii -» R. fuscipes) and was interpreted as species occupying stages in the suc-•Present address: cession when their optimal habitat requirements were fulfilled. These results have important implications for the design of management policies using fire or fire regimes as tools for habitat maintenance or alteration. A mosaic of forest patches of adequate size covering the entire range of serai stages is necessary to meet the optimum requirements of all the above species.

The importance of understorey on wildlife in a brazilian eucalypt plantation

“…In addition, primates may not have used the area because of the distance of the subcanopy habitat from the native forest in Park. The trapping site abutted the Park but was separated by a wide, low, wet area of approximately 400 m. FOX AND MCKAY (1981) argued that small mammals respond to the understorey in plantation~ (eucalypt) in a similar fashion as they do to early secondary native species habitats. This is corroborated by this study, and its is evident that small mammal populations are higher in spatially heterogeneous habitats than in relatively homogeneous forest such as RD/P.…”

Habitat characteristics for New Holland mouse Pseudomys novaehollandiae in Victoria

“…At Myall Lakes National Park the species occurs on heavily leached Pleistocene sands with low nutrient levels that support shrubby wet heaths and swamps (0.5 -1 m), and drier heaths (3 -4 m) on tops of dunes. The species also occurs on Holocene dunes in open forest (25 m) with heath or forest understorey (Fox and McKay 1981). In Tasmania the species occurs in heathland and woodland on vegetated sand dunes (Hocking 1980;Norton 1987;Pye 1991;Lazenby 1999).…”

“…In NSW, P. novaehollandiae also occurs in a variety of structural vegetation types including heathland and woodland, dry sclerophyll forest with a dense shrub layer and on vegetated sand dunes (Keith and Calaby 1968;Fox and McKay 1981;Posamentier and Recher 1974;Kemper 1977;Fox and Fox 1978). At Myall Lakes National Park the species occurs on heavily leached Pleistocene sands with low nutrient levels that support shrubby wet heaths and swamps (0.5 -1 m), and drier heaths (3 -4 m) on tops of dunes.…”

“…Recently, however, it has also been found at sites up to 100 km inland at altitudes of 550 -900 m in Queensland and NSW (Read 1988; Townley 1993;Van Dyck and Lawrie 1997). P. novaehollandiae occurs in a variety of habitats including heathland and woodland (Posamentier and Recher 1974;Kemper 1977;Braithwaite and Gullan 1978;Hocking 1980;Pye 1991), dry sclerophyll forest with a dense shrub layer (Keith and Calaby 1968;Seebeck and Beste 1970;Fox and McKay 1981) and on vegetated sand dunes (Keith and Calaby 1968;Fox and Fox 1978;Cockburn 1980;Pye 1991). …”

“…In the eastern Otways, Victoria, the species preferred vegetation of high floristic diversity, and within this vegetation it preferred areas of denser cover in low vegetation layers (Wilson 1991). The species has been shown to increase in abundance as vegetation regenerates after wildfire or sand-mining, and reaches maximum abundance between 2 -6 years (Kemper 1977(Kemper , 1990 Fox 1978, 1984;Fox and McKay 1981;Fox 1982;Twigg et al 1989;Wilson 1991Wilson , 1996b Wilson et al 1990, Lock andWilson 1999). These responses of P.…”