The Effect of Microclimate on the Distribution of Small Mammals in a Tall-Grass Prairie Plot

Abstract

misleading since plants (and animals, too) live in the zone of disturbance which is avoided in marcroclimatological observations. It has been shown that such data taken by the weather bureau can be used only in a very broad, general way by ecologists. Elton (1942), after examining a very extensive body of data on rodent populations, concluded that periodic changes in the physical environment must play some part in causing the fluctuations in numbers, or, at least in making them regular. The purpose of the present investigation was to secure information on the effect of climatic factors on the distribution of small mammals, especially the rodents, in the two vegetative types (open grassland and wooded ravine) of a tall-grass prairie area in central Oklahoma. Since