Abstract
Many questions concerning habitat preferences of Neotropical small mammals remain unanswered. These questions include where the animal lives within and among the available habitats, and the temporal (seasonal and interannual) variation in the habitat associations. The objectives of this research were: (1) to determine the associations of non-volant small mammal species (Rodentia and Didelphimorphia) with specific microhabitat characteristics including vegetation structure in an area near the western boundary of the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest, and (2) to evaluate seasonal and interannual variation in those associations. Three grids were sampled in three seasons (Dry, Wet, Variable) during two years (2015-2017). The four predominant small mammal species (Gracilinanus agilis, Akodon montensis, Hylaeamys megacephalus, and Oligoryzomys nigripes) were evaluated for seasonal and interannual variation in habitat preferences. Each of the four exhibited seasonal and/or interannual variation in microhabitat preferences for three to six of the 17 environmental variables analyzed. This is the first study to explicitly evaluate temporal variation in habitat associations of small mammals in the Atlantic Forest ecoregion. The temporal patterns of habitat association among these four predominant species reveal a complex spatially and temporally dynamic composition and structure in this small mammal community.
Highlights
In the Neotropics, sigmodontine rodents and didelphid marsupials often comprise rich components of the mammal communities (Emmons & Feer, 1997; Solari et al, 2001; D’Elía & Pardiñas, 2015; Owen et al, 2018)
STUDY SITE The study was conducted in the Reserva Natural del Bosque Mbaracayú (RNBM), a natural reserve of 64,405.7 hectares that is located in Canindeyú department, northeastern Paraguay between latitudes -24.00 and -24.25 and longitudes -55.33 and -55.53 (Figure 1)
The RNBM is located near the western margin of the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest (UPAF), depicted as tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest in the biome map of Olson et al (2001)
Summary
In the Neotropics, sigmodontine rodents and didelphid marsupials often comprise rich components of the mammal communities (Emmons & Feer, 1997; Solari et al, 2001; D’Elía & Pardiñas, 2015; Owen et al, 2018). Many questions concerning habitat preferences remain unanswered. These questions include where the animal lives within the habitat matrix, and the temporal (seasonal and interannual) variation in the habitat associations (Owen et al, 2019). Answers to these questions would enable better understanding of the composition and dynamics of marsupial and rodent communities on a local scale. Distinct microhabitat associations were reported for a variety of species in southern Amazonia (Santos-Filho et al, 2008), secondary Atlantic Forest remnants (Püttker et al, 2008), a western Atlantic Forest region (Owen et al, 2010), a southern Atlantic Forest site (Melo et al, 2011, 2013), the Pampas region in southern Brazil (Sponchiado et al, 2012), and in the southwestern Cerrado (Smith et al, 2012; Carmignotto et al, 2014)
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