Small mammal communities in forest ecosystems affected by urbanization

Abstract

A set of characters has been used to evaluate transformations in forest phytocenoses and their small mammal communities affected by urbanization, compared to conditionally undisturbed phytocenoses (communities). In park forests of the city of Yekaterinburg, the understory and subordinate shrub and herb- dwarf shrub layers of phytocenosis are transformed to a greater extent. The undergrowth of conifer forest� forming species is as a rule sparse or absent, and that of deciduous trees often consists mainly of invasive spe� cies. Small mammal communities in pine forests transformed under the effect of urbanization also undergo changes leading to the formation of relatively stable (for an urbanized environment) zoocenoses differing both in species composition and in parameters characterizing community diversity.