Diversity and abundance of small mammal communities in Portuguese eucalyptus plantations

• Autor(a) principal: Magalhães, Ana Raquel Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/28384
• topic: Production forests; Live trapping; Eucalyptus globulus; Species richness; Rodents

Eucalyptus plantation forests have been increasing worldwide in the past years to fulfil all the lignocellulosic demands of humans. Eucalyptus globulos is one of the most planted species, particularly in Europe, with Portugal being the largest producer. Its properties of fast growth, good wood quality, coppice system and low maintenance requirements allows outstanding performances and makes them ideal cash crops. Considering the extension of eucalyptus plantations in Portugal it is crucial to understand their impacts in the usage patterns of space by populations, especially those that use landscape in smaller scales – small mammals. The present study intents to evaluate the patterns of diversity and occurrence of small mammal communities (especially rodents from Muridae family) present in the eucalypts plantations of Central Portugal and identify the factors determining those patterns. Thus, four hypotheses were formulated, which state that murid occurrence is determined by: (H1) local land cover composition and structure; (H2) disturbances by predators and ungulates and fire events; (H3) type of soil; and (H4) sampling season. In general, diversity is smaller in plantations than in native areas and murid occurrence (the only taxa with sufficient data to be analysed) is promoted by leaf litter absence of (more trophic resources) and by recent fires (reduction of predatory pressure). This work shows that in spite of being impoverished, eucalypts sustain some species of small mammals, whose ecological patters do not seem to be affected by the eucalypts itself, but instead by an array of natural environmental factors, as well as anthropic.