Landscape Ecology vol. 6 no. 4 pp 259-268 (1992)

This study describes the demographic features of a population of Sigmodon hispidus utilizing the habitat mosaic provided by a Carolina Bay on the Atlantic coastal plain of South Carolina. A total of 71 cotton rats were captured 160 times on a 4 ha grid during a winter decline from to less that Body weights of adults declined until early February and then increased; those of subadults grew very slowly until February followed by a spurt in growth. Weight gain did not differ between survivors and non-survivors for males, but female survivors gained 1.5 g per week more than non-survivors. Female subadults exhibited higher mor- tality early in the decline and males later. Adult females were randomly distributed across 8 microhabitats, whereas adult males were almost exclu- sively confined to heavy cover. males used wet sites more than any other cohort; females were widely distributed using drier sites most frequently. By the end of the decline, all survivors were localized inRubus-dominated patches. No statistically significant changes in electromorphgenotypes or allele frequencies were detected, but survivors had a higher frequency of the F-allele at the adenylate kinase locus than did non-survivors (42.3% vs. 16.7%). Our findings affirm the importance of a landscape perspective in understanding the population dynamics of cotton rats, and show how a habitat mosaic influences survival differentially among sex-age cohorts. 1