Ilkka Hanski and Small Mammals: from Shrew Metapopulations to Vole and Lemming Cycles

Abstract

Ilkka Hanski may be best known for his work on insect and metapopulation dynamics, but he also contributed significantly to small mammal research. In the early 1980s he became interested in shrew dynamics, energetics, and of course, shrew metapopulations. He aimed at understanding the population biological consequences of body size in different shrew species. Feeding habits and environmental stochasticity affect shrew species in profoundly different ways: due to their short survival time small species have high extinction rates but their dispersal and colonization capacity is high which enables them to survive as metapopulations. After Hansson and Henttonen reported the Fennoscandian gradients in vole dynamics in the mid-1980s, Hanski became interested in vole and lemming cycles. The first models on this were published with Henttonen and Hansson in 1991 where the roles of specialist and generalist predators were assessed. Later, the models were further developed with Korpimaki and Turchin, with model para...