Small Mammals, habitat, and Forest Restoration at Seney National Wildlife Refuge

[摘要] ABSTRACTMy study took place at Seney National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) in the east-centralUpper Peninsula of Michigan. Recently, SNWR forest management has attempted to build andmaintain biological integrity though ecological restoration. In order to inform managers aboutwildlife habitat requirements, my study focused on the habitat use of small mammals. Iinvestigated at which scale, macro- or microhabitat, habitat elements predicted the presence ofsmall mammals. I predicted: 1) small mammal communities in near old-growth stands will bemore abundant than in logged habitats proposed for restoration and 2) small mammal speciescomposition, in mature and second-growth conifers and hardwoods, can be predicted by specifichabitat characteristics such as coarse woody debris abundance and basal area of trees.I trapped small mammals in eight hardwood stands, with four replicates each of matureand second-growth forest stands, and in nine coniferous sites with three replicates of eachcategory (mature, second-growth, recently cut). Small mammals were live-trapped during Julyand August in 2004 and 2005; vegetation measurements were taken during the summer of 2005.At the macrohabitat scale, no significant differences were found between small mammal capturesand site categories on either deciduous or coniferous plots even though differences in habitatstructure among site categories existed (evident in the principle components analysis). However,my results supported the hypothesis that microhabitat features are important in predicting thedistribution of small mammals. At the micro-scale, the binomial regression analysis identifiedthree important habitat elements on which managers should concentrate restoration efforts:coarse woody debris, snags, and tree species diversity. Many other wildlife species depend onthe same habitat elements as small mammals and a management focus on these three habitatcomponents during restoration will help to obtain overall biological integrity.

[发布机构] University of Michigan

[效力级别] Science

[关键词] Natural Resources and Environment;Science;Natural Resources and Environment