A comparison of small rodent assemblages after a 20 year interval in the Alps

Human-induced environmental alterations in the Alps may importantly affect small mammal species, but evidence in this sense is limited. We live-trapped small rodents in the Central-Eastern Italian Alps in three close-by habitat types (rocky scree, alpine grassland, and heath) at 2100 m a.s.l. during summer-fall, in 1997 and 2016. We compared small rodent assemblages through a Redundancy Detrended Analysis (RDA). In both surveys, we detected two specialist species, i.e., the common vole (Microtus arvalis) and the snow vole (Chionomys nivalis), and, unexpectedly, the forest generalist bank vole (Myodes glareolus). In 1997, grassland was mainly occupied by the common vole, while the bank vole and the snow vole were sympatric in the other habitats. In 2016, the snow vole was detected only in the scree, while other species did not show distribution changes. We discuss a series of hypotheses that might have driven the differences observed across decades, among which is a species-specific response to abiotic and biotic environmental alterations, with the alpine habitat specialist moving out of sub-optimal habitats. We encourage further research on this topic, e.g., via long-term longitudinal studies

Propuesta de una microzonificación en el distrito El Algarroba

El distrito El Algarrobal comprende una pequeña porción del Departamento de Las Heras, donde se asienta uno de los servicios más importante de la zona Cuyo, que es el Aeropuerto Internacional Francisco Gabrielli que ocupa un 15% de superficie del total del distrito y es la fachada que se presenta frente a una de las vías de circulación mas importante de Mendoza que es el acceso Norte, quedando el resto del área como «Patio de Atrás», con actividades sin control, muy dañinas, que generan pasivos ambientales difíciles de revertir con parcelas con grandes pozos, contaminación y basurales a cielo abierto. Esta situación, impulso el estudio del espacio geográfico, con el fin de aportar alternativas de mejoras para mejorar la calidad de vida de la comunidad de la zona

Using Springs as Sentinels of Climate Change in Nature Parks North and South of the Alps: A Critical Evaluation of Methodological Aspects and Recommendations for Long-Term Monitoring

Spring ecosystems are diverse transition zones between ground- and surface-water habitats. Due to their characteristics and vulnerable species assemblages, springs are considered indicator systems for monitoring environmental change. In particular, climate change is expected to alter spring-ecosystem features, such as water temperature and discharge, affecting otherwise typically stable biotic and abiotic conditions. However, reliable trend-development recognition and analysis require a uniform methodology and comparable data series over long periods of time. Spring research findings in the Berchtesgaden National Park and the Adamello-Brenta Nature Park have been consolidated to develop methodological recommendations to create lasting societal-added value. The successful transfer of the methodology to the Bavarian Forest National Park and the experienced contribution of the Bavarian Association for the Protection of Nature (Bavarian Climate Alliance) strongly improved method validations. Our resulting, newly developed recommendations for long-term spring monitoring have a focus on climate change impacts and aim at providing a decision-making basis for establishing programs in similar ecological and climatic zones. Uniform site-selection criteria and selected climate-sensitive parameters are indicated. This includes documenting the spring’s environment and structure, measuring abiotic parameters, and determining selected floristic and faunistic groups. We recommend measurement and sampling-survey intervals ranging from 3(4) times yearly to every 5 years, depending on the parameter. We further suggest a database system that integrates all monitoring parameters to ensure consistent data management and storage. Analysing the data resulting from our new holistic spring monitoring methodology should provide critical knowledge about putatively changing ecosystems that can then be used as evidence of climate-change impact on spring ecosystems

Propuesta de microzonificación y usos de suelo en el distrito “El Algarrobal”, Las Heras, Mendoza

Las acciones que se realizan a través de gestiones territoriales, con normativas o decisiones políticas sobre espacios geográficos, sumado a la falta de control de parte del Estado, pueden provocar sobreexplotaciones que producen daños irreversibles y un desmejoramiento de la calidad de vida de la población del lugar. En algunos casos las consecuencias se advierten a largo plazo, pero en el distrito El Algarrobal la degradación es muy evidente, en un relativamente corto período espaciotemporal. Este marcado daño ambiental y territorial que se puede observar a simple vista, es lo que indujo a definirla como área de estudio, a fin de poder aportar propuestas de mejoras, para el desarrollo de las actividades del distrito, desde el sector cientí- fico, a los administradores del dominio público. Para elaborar propuestas se debe contar con estudios previos, imágenes de la zona y fundamentalmente con el conocimiento empírico obtenido por visitas y reconocimientos de los sectores del área del estudio

Up in the neighbor’s garden: ecology of bank vole in high Alpine habitats

Small mammals are excellent bioindicators to track habitat shifts affected by fast-occurring climate change. Thus, small mammals monitoring in the Alps, that for the steep elevation gradient are particularly sensitive to climate change, can provide important indications on alpine environment alterations. We performed a capture/mark/recapture pilot study in Central Alps, comparing small mammals assemblages in three close-by open sites above tree line at the same elevation, but with different habitats (rocky scree, grassland and shrubs). We then compared the results with an analogous study performed in the same sites in 1997. For each site, small mammals were identified by fur-clipping over six independent trapping/release sessions during summer/fall 2016, determining species, age, sex, and recording biometric measures. We performed a Redundancy Detrended Analysis (RDA) to analyze small mammals association within a given habitat, both for 1997 and 2016, considering only the first capture event for any individual/site/session. Results showed that, both in 1997 and 2016, the most relevant species in the assemblages were bank vole (Myodes glareolus) and snow vole (Chionomys nivalis). However, in 1997 these species were sympatric over the three sites, while in 2016 they were only associated in the scree habitat. These results indicated the presence of bank vole, a typically forest species, in a high alpine environment. This suggests a possible upwards habitat shift of this highly plastic species, that may modify sympatric species habitat use. We speculate that the association change observed in 2016, with snow vole shrinking in its optimal habitat (scree), may be consequence of bank vole increasing adaptation to these environments, potentially leading to direct or indirect inter-specific competition. However, a long-term monitoring of small mammals assemblage is needed to verify these hypotheses, in order to disentangle climate change impacts on small mammals community from stochastic demographic fluctuations typically occurring in these specie

Small mammals in a mountain ecosystem: the effect of topographic, micrometeorological, and biological correlates on their community structure

An increasing number of studies have investigated spatial and temporal patterns in species richness and assemblage com- position in mountain ecosystems along altitudinal gradients. Small mammals have been successfully used as indicators of environmental health and as proxies of biodiversity. However, information about the composition and distribution of species assemblages in the mosaic of habitat and rocky landform types at a high altitude is still lacking for most of the mountain regions. Through the use of live traps and camera trapping, we described the small mammal community living above the treeline of the Western Dolomites (Italian Alps), investigating the species richness, abundance of individuals and community composition in relation to topographic, micrometeorological, mesohabitat, and biological correlates. A total of five species and 50 individuals were sampled, analysed, and released. At the extremes of the analysed altitudinal range (i.e. 1900 vs 2900 m a.s.l.), community composition was completely different and species richness was related to elevation, steepness, and vegetation cover. At the same time, the taxonomic distinctness of ground-dwelling arthropods (namely carabid beetles and spiders), a proxy of habitat complexity, showed higher values in areas with a greater small mammal species richness. We found a positive effect of steepness and rocky landform type “carsism” on the number of captured individuals, showing the importance of the availability of shelters and underground burrows for the sampled species. As a confirmation of the altitudinal shift for these species in relation to the ongoing climate change, we detected a negative impact of sub-surface ground temperature on small mammal abundance during the monitoring period. In conclusion, small mammals represent an excellent model for understanding the evolutionary processes of ecosystems, population dynamics under changing envi- ronmental conditions, and habitat vulnerabilities