Sheep grazing and rodent populations: evidence of negative interactions from a landscape scale experiment

Inter-specific competition, facilitation and predation influence herbivore assemblages, but no study has experimentally explored the interactions between large ungulates and small rodents. In a fully replicated, landscape scale experiment, we manipulated densities of domestic sheep in mountain pastu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oecologia 2005-04, Vol.143 (3), p.357-364
Main Authors: Steen, H, Mysterud, A, Austrheim, G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Arvicolinae - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
Clethrionomys glareolus
Competitive Behavior - physiology
Diet
Domestic animals
Ecological competition
Ecosystem
facilitation
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Grazing
Habitats
Herbivores
interspecies relationships
Microtus agrestis
Models, Biological
Norway
Pasture
Plants
Population Density
Population Dynamics
Population Ecology
Population growth
Rodents
Seasons
Sheep
Sheep - physiology
small mammals
Species Specificity
Ungulates
Voles
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Summary:Inter-specific competition, facilitation and predation influence herbivore assemblages, but no study has experimentally explored the interactions between large ungulates and small rodents. In a fully replicated, landscape scale experiment, we manipulated densities of domestic sheep in mountain pastures in Norway. We then determined population growth and densities of rodents by live trapping in each of the areas with different sheep densities. We found that the (summer) population growth rate and autumn density of the field vole (Microtus agrestis) was lower at high sheep density. This provides the first experimental evidence of negative interactions between an ungulate and small rodent species. There was no effect on the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus), whose diet differs from sheep. Sheep density, therefore, potentially alters the pattern of interspecific population synchrony amongst voles. Our study shows that negative interactions between large ungulates and small rodents may be species-specific and negative population consequences for the rodent population appear above threshold ungulate densities.
ISSN:0029-8549
1432-1939
DOI:10.1007/s00442-004-1792-z