Abstract
The paper is devoted to studying the influence of agricultural land on the formation of small mammal communities in the pine forests of the Tom River Valley. For the analysis, we took sites of natural and artificial pine forests of different areas experiencing various anthropogenic pressures. It was revealed that species composition, species richness and species diversity of small mammalian communities depend on a whole complex of factors. Thus, the population of right-bank forests is largely determined by the influence of mountain-taiga complexes of mammals in the adjacent territories. Cutting down taiga forests and using the vacant spaces for agricultural purposes lead to the introduction of species that prefer open biotopes to the initial community. A correlation was found between the size of the pine forest and its resistance to invasive species. The creation of artificial pine forests in the forest-steppe does not lead to the formation of typical forest communities of small mammals, due to their limited ability to resettle. Quite extensive, but to varying degrees isolated natural and artificial pine forests within the city and along the boundaries of the city are unique ecological “islands” that play a significant role in maintaining the diversity of the urban fauna ofmammals.
Highlights
The anthropogenic transformation of landscapes and the reduction of biological diversity are some of the most significant environmental problems.In accordance with the concept of sustainable development, all living organisms on Earth are not just components of a biosphere, and important links in food chains
Small mammals were counted according to the standard method: by using 50-meter catching grooves with 5 cylindrical pitfalls, in the spring-autumn period of 1992–2017
The absence of selectivity in captures allows us to obtain the results that most accurately represent the ratio of the species of small mammals in the studied community
Summary
The anthropogenic transformation of landscapes and the reduction of biological diversity are some of the most significant environmental problems.In accordance with the concept of sustainable development, all living organisms on Earth are not just components of a biosphere, and important links in food chains. Adjacent to the river, there is a natural old fern-forb pine forest with an area of about 400 hectares (the Rudnik Bor). A taiga complex was formed on the right bank with the prevalence of shrews: taiga shrew, and Laxmann’s shrew; and rodents: northern red-backed vole, grey red-backed vole, and Korean field mouse.
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