Disentangling the Effects of Climate and Land Uses on Small Mammals in Agroecosystems of NE Spain

We analyzed the two main drivers (climate and land uses) shaping the composition of small mammal communities at 16 localities situated in the confluence of the Mediterranean and Eurosiberian regions (Barcelona, Spain). The study area represents a land use and land cover gradient showing urbanization...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Diversity (Basel) 2024-06, Vol.16 (6), p.343
Main Authors: Torre, Ignasi, Requejo, Andrés, Arrizabalaga, Antoni, Baucells, Jordi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural ecology
Agricultural ecosystems
Analysis
Biodiversity
Climate
Climate change
Climate effects
Coniferous forests
Crops
Deciduous forests
Encroachment
Environmental factors
environmental gradients
Geography
Intensive farming
Land cover
Land use
Lowlands
Mammals
Mountain regions
Mountainous areas
Ordination
Owls
Rainfall
Small mammals
Species
species responses
Urban areas
Urbanization
Variance
Vegetation
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Summary:We analyzed the two main drivers (climate and land uses) shaping the composition of small mammal communities at 16 localities situated in the confluence of the Mediterranean and Eurosiberian regions (Barcelona, Spain). The study area represents a land use and land cover gradient showing urbanization and crop intensification in the lowlands and forest encroachment in mountain areas. We identified 2458 small mammal individuals of 12 different species from barn owl (Tyto alba) pellets. Three open-land species (Microtus duodecimcostatus, Crocidura russula, and Mus spretus) and one forest/generalist species (Apodemus sylvaticus) were dominant in the diet, accounting for 93% of prey. In order to disentangle the effects of both main drivers on the small mammal community, we used partial constrained ordination techniques, which allowed us to determine the pure effects (and shared effects) of the environmental factors. Land use predictors explained 33.4% of the variance (mostly crops), followed by 23.4% of the variance explained by the geo-climatic variables (mostly rainfall), and an additional 24.8% of the variance was shared by both groups of predictors, totaling 81.6% of environmental variance. The remaining 18.4% of variance was unexplained by environmental matrices. This pattern was consistent with expected associations of species and biotic influences at small spatial scales and highlighted that the number of species increased from the crops in the lowlands towards the highlands covered by deciduous and coniferous forests.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d16060343