Riparian Vegetation Conversion to an Oil Tea Plantation: Impacts on Small Mammals at the Community, Population, and Individual Level

Riparian vegetation is crucial for maintaining terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, but it is threatened by land-use activities. To assess the ecological impacts of riparian vegetation conversion to an oil tea (Camellia oleifera) plantation, we quantified the responses of small mammals in two natur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forests 2023-06, Vol.14 (6), p.1169
Main Authors: Zhang, Lei-Lei, Tang, Yun-Sheng, Wang, Yu-Jue, Wang, Jia-Neng, Wang, Zheng, Zhang, Bao-Wei, Chen, Wen-Wen, Pan, Ying, Chen, Xin-Sheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
body condition
Camellia
Camellia oleifera
Community composition
Conversion
ectoparasite
Ectoparasites
Environmental aspects
Floods
Forests
Habitats
Land use
Mammals
Meadows
Oil
Physiological aspects
Plantations
Population density
population dynamics
Riparian areas
Riparian land
Riparian vegetation
Seeds
Small mammals
Tea
Tree farms
Vegetation
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Summary:Riparian vegetation is crucial for maintaining terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, but it is threatened by land-use activities. To assess the ecological impacts of riparian vegetation conversion to an oil tea (Camellia oleifera) plantation, we quantified the responses of small mammals in two natural habitats (mature forest and flood-meadow) and in Camellia forests at the community, population, and individual level. We found that the community diversity was similar between Camellia forests and mature forests, but higher than the flood-meadow. Meanwhile, the community composition differed across three habitats, with Camellia forests favoring habitat generalist species. At the population level, Camellia forests and flood-meadow had a similar population density, which were higher than mature forests. At the individual level, Rattus nitidus was less sensitive to this conversion, but the body condition index of Niviventer confucianus was higher in Camellia forests than in mature forests, and Apodemus agrarius in Camellia forests had more ectoparasite load than in the flood-meadow, indicating a species-specific response to the impacts of oil tea plantation. Our study highlights that the occurrence of habitat generalist species and high ectoparasite loads may threaten regional biodiversity and increase the risk of parasite transmission with enlarging the oil tea plantation area within riparian zones.
ISSN:1999-4907
1999-4907
DOI:10.3390/f14061169