The effect of grazing on winter survival of midday gerbil (<i>Meriones meridianus</i>) of different genders

Yang, Suwen; Yuan, Shuofeng; Wu, Xiaodong; Zhang, Rong; Yue, Xiuxian; Ji, Yu; Li, Linlin; Li, Xin; Fu, Heping

doi:10.1002/ece3.6870

Cited by 6 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…The activity patterns of Midday gerbil and NTJ in the grazing exclusion area showed high similarity in different seasons, and the separation degree in the temporal niche between two species was low. Studies in the same study area showed that food availability in the grazing exclusion area was significantly higher than that in the grazing area (Yang et al, 2020). Midday gerbils and NTJ have a similar diet, but higher food availability alleviated the pressure of food competition.…”

Section: Coexistence Strategies Of Two Rodent Speciesmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The vegetation is sparse, and the plants are mainly xerophytic, super xerophytic and halophytic shrubs. Midday gerbil, NTJ, desert hamsters (Phodopus roborovskii) and Mongolian five-toed jerboa (Orientallactaga sibirica) are dominant small-mammal species (Yang et al, 2020). Other natural enemies include Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo), Marbled polecat (Vormela peregusna), and Corsac fox (Vulpes corsac; Yuan et al, 2018).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their activity durations were significantly higher in spring. In spring, rodents have a higher energy requirement caused by limited food availability (Yang et al, 2020), lower ambient temperatures (Sun, 2006), and frequent reproduction behavior (Wei et al, 1996;Topilko et al, 2022). In summer, the activity duration of Midday gerbil and NTJ was significantly curtailed, and the high temperatures reduced the animals' foraging efficiency (Plessis et al, 2012).…”

Section: Time Allocation For the Two Dominant Rodent Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the higher predation risk from low vegetation coverage for quadrupedal gerbils in the grazing area (Pereira et al, 2012), the activity duration of Midday gerbil in the grazing area in summer was significantly lower than that in the grazing exclusion area. In autumn, there were differences in the activity allocation of the two dominant rodents, because they had different overwintering patterns (Shuai et al, 2016;Yuan et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2020). Midday gerbils are non-hibernators, so they increased food storing behavior and showed confrontation behavior in autumn.…”

Section: Time Allocation For the Two Dominant Rodent Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus) and northern three-toed jerboa (NTJ, Dipus sagitta) are typical nocturnal dominant rodent species, and coexist in the Alxa desert in China (Wu et al, 2016). They are omnivorous species with similar food habits (Yuan et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2020), and compete for food in the same habitats (Li et al, 2020). Midday gerbil is a quadrupedal forager with foodhoarding habits, while NTJ is a bipedal wanderer with larger home range, and does not store food (Zhao, 1964;Song and Liu, 1984;Shuai et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of grazing on the activity pattern and temporal niche of two dominant rodent species in Alxa desert

Yuan²,

Li³

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Grazing by large herbivores can potentially affect interspecific interactions between small herbivores by reducing the ecological fitness of animals. Desert rodents are important components in desert ecosystems and indicators of environmental change. Grazing reduces food resources, but rodents can decrease interspecific niche overlap by adaptive behavior. However, the key factors driving rodent behavioral activities and coexistence in the Alxa desert remains unstudied. We monitored population density and behavioral activities of Midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus) and northern three-toed jerboa (Dipus sagitta) in a grazing exclusion experiment in Alxa desert, Inner Mongolia, China, in 2017. We assessed the relationship between environmental factors (such as plant height, density, coverage, rainfall and temperature) and the behavioral activities of two coexisting rodent species. The results showed that: (1) In summer, grazing significantly reduced the activity time of gerbil and jerboa compared to that in grazing exclusion areas (gerbil: F = 5.98, p < 0.05, η2 = 0.22; jerboa: F = 8.57, p < 0.01, η2 = 0.28). Grazing reduced the temporal niche overlap with an obvious shifting of activity peaks between two species. (2) Grazing exclusion enhanced the temporal niche overlap between the two rodent species due to greater food availability which relieved inter-specific competition in each season. (3) Grazing strengthened the sensitivity of rodents to environmental changes in all seasons. These results indicated that grazing affected competition between the rodent species by altering vegetation conditions, which in turn affected the temporal niche and activity patterns of rodents.

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Section: Coexistence Strategies Of Two Rodent Speciesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Time Allocation For the Two Dominant Rodent Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Time Allocation For the Two Dominant Rodent Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of grazing on the activity pattern and temporal niche of two dominant rodent species in Alxa desert

Yuan²,

Li³

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Effects of overgrazing on the functional diversity of rodents in desert areas

Zhu,

Li,

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Environmental stressors and disturbances can cause changes in an ecosystem's community structure, which can be reflected in its functional diversity. As grazing intensity increases, this causes changes in the environment that inevitably lead to changes in the community structure, which can especially affect rodents due to their sensitivity to the environment. The effects of grazing prohibition and overgrazing on the functional diversity of desert rodent communities in Alxa were studied in April, July, and October of 2018–2020. The trap‐day method was used to study rodent communities in disturbed habitats. Five functional traits were selected and quantified: nutrition, life history, physiology, morphology, and activity rhythm. The results showed that: (1) The species composition of rodent communities in the Alxa Desert in spring and autumn was significantly correlated with the functional traits of the hibernation, reproductive cycle, and feeding habits. The species composition in the summer was only significantly correlated with the functional traits of reproductive cycle and diet. (2) The effects of overgrazing on the functional diversity of rodents in desert areas have significant temporal and spatial characteristics. (3) In spring and summer, overgrazing made the Functional Richness index of the rodent community lower than that of areas where grazing is prohibited, but the Functional Evenness index was higher than that of grazing‐prohibition areas. In autumn, overgrazing increased the Functional Richness index of the rodent community and decreased the Functional Evenness index. The Functional Divergence index was higher in overgrazing areas than in grazing‐prohibited ones. These results suggest that, in spring and summer, overgrazing reduced the ecological space utilization ability of rodent communities; however, the impact on the degree of utilization of community resources is more comprehensive. In autumn, overgrazing increases the ability of rodent communities to use ecological space but reduces resource efficiency. Overgrazing makes the niche differentiation of rodent communities higher, the degree of overlap lower, and the competition between species weaker. Therefore, overgrazing will affect the functional diversity of the community through the utilization of ecological space, resource utilization, interspecific competition, and niche.

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Flexible males, proactive females: personality tests show increased boldness/exploration in colonists damping with time in males but not in females

Tchabovsky,

Surkova,

Savinetskaya

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Individuals colonizing new areas at expanding ranges encounter challenging and unfamiliar environments, suggesting that colonists should differ in behavioural traits from the residents of the source populations. The colonizer syndrome is supposed to be associated with boldness, exploration, activity, and low sociability. We assessed spatial and temporal variation in the colonizer syndrome in the expanding population of midday gerbils (Meriones meridianus). Male first colonists tended to be faster and bolder than residents, although the difference was not significant. Female first colonists were bolder, faster and more explorative than residents. These findings support boldness/exploration syndrome as a typical colonizer trait, which appears to be restricted to females in midday gerbils. Males and females also differed in the behavioural dynamics post-colony establishment. In males, boldness/exploration/sociability peaked in newly founded colonies, then sharply decreased in subsequent generations following decreasing environmental uncertainty in aging colonies. In females, increased boldness/exploration did not lower with time post-colonization, i.e. female colonists retained bold/explorative phenotype in subsequent generations despite facing a less challenging environment. Thus, female colonists, unlike males, carry a specialized behavioural colonizer phenotype corresponding to a proactive behavioural coping strategy. We link sex differences in behavioural traits of colonists to the sex-specific life-history strategies.

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The effect of grazing on winter survival of midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus) of different genders

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 6 publications

References 85 publications

Influence of grazing on the activity pattern and temporal niche of two dominant rodent species in Alxa desert

Influence of grazing on the activity pattern and temporal niche of two dominant rodent species in Alxa desert

Effects of overgrazing on the functional diversity of rodents in desert areas

Flexible males, proactive females: personality tests show increased boldness/exploration in colonists damping with time in males but not in females

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