Edge Effects and Isolation: Red-Backed Voles on Forest Remnants

Mills, Scott

Take from abstract; "Negative effects of habitat edge have been advanced as an important proximate cause of extinction, and a growing literature calls attention to the matrix surrounding habitat remnants as a critical factor determining population persistence. I examined spatial distribution of California red-backed voles on 13 forest remnants and five control sites in southwestern Oregon. The species was virtually isolate on remnants, making little use of the regenerating clear cuts surrounding the remnants. The effects of the clear cut also impinged on the remnants as edge effects: six times more voles were captured per trap in the interior of remnants than on the edge. Consequently, the density of voles per unit are on remnants increased with remnant size, despite the potential buildup of population density in small isolates due to limited emigration. I explored potential mechanisms of the negative edge effects on vole distribution because both number and volume of logs increased from the interior to the edge remnants. However, the distribution of the vole's primary food item, hypogenous sporocarps of mycorrhizal fungi, did correspond to the vole edge effect."

Edge Effects and Isolation: Red-Backed Voles on Forest Remnants

Series