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Impact of habitat loss on small mammals in New England

Habitat loss is the leading cause of declining wildlife populations around the world. Predicting species responses to habitat loss therefore represents a fundamental challenge in conservation biology.  Effective management strategy necessitates a thorough understanding of 1) the quality of different habitat types for a given species, 2) the response of the individuals immediately impacted by habitat loss, and 3) the larger-scale repercussions of habitat loss on populations in the surrounding landscape.  I used a combination of natural history surveys, manipulative field experiments, and matrix population modeling to address these issues for the white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus. The white-footed mouse is an ecological model species (EMS), for which experimental manipulations of habitat quality are possible, and which can provide us with valuable insights into the likely responses of related imperiled species to loss of habitat (such as the Anacapa deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus anacapae, and the Key Largo cotton  mouse, Peromyscus gossypinus allapaticola).

I evaluated habitat quality for mice living in mosaic landscapes using four years of field data that I collected in northeastern Connecticut. I parameterized spatially explicit matrix population models with data collected for each of four mosaic study sites, revealing strong differences in habitat quality. Habitat-specific growth rates, as predicted by these models, were generally lower than the growth rates projected for the mosaic sites as a whole, indicating the importance of multiple habitats in maintaining persistent regional populations.  Counter to expectation, habitats with relatively low population growth rates (population “sinks”) were found to positively contribute to regional population persistence, suggesting that these low-quality habitats may be very important for promoting long-term population persistence across heterogeneous landscapes.

In addition, using a manipulative field experiment, I showed that territorial interactions are an important mechanism determining the successful relocation of mice that are evicted from their native home ranges.  Successful reestablishment of evicted animals was strongly impacted by the density of resident conspecifics, indicating that for territorial species, resettlement following habitat loss in areas of high population density is likely to be largely unsuccessful.

I used matrix models to simulate the impact of habitat loss on white-footed mouse population dynamics across the mosaic study sites. To test the predictions of these models, I altered the highest quality habitat at two of the four study sites, one with a prescribed burn and the other with clear-cut logging. Follow-up monitoring and modeling exercises revealed negative impacts of habitat loss across both sites, including impacts extending well into the neighboring, unperturbed habitat, as predicted.  In this study, the predictions made by the matrix models agreed qualitatively with field manipulations, however, quantitative comparison revealed areas for future model refinement. The matrix models and field experiments illustrated the importance of multiple habitats for ensuring the long-term persistence of animals across mosaic landscapes. The combination of approaches used in this research—from behavioral and demographic information to population viability models (including validation via landscape-scale manipulation experiments)—was critical for understanding the response of small mammals to habitat loss.

Note: The matrix models described here were developed in collaboration with Jason Grear at the US EPA in Rhode Island.

Radio interviews featuring research:

June 20, 2003. Surviving Extinction, Part I. [National Public Radio]

October 29, 2004. Surviving Extinction, Part II. [National Public Radio]

Relevant publications:

Burns, C.E. and J.S. Grear. 2008. Effects of habitat loss on populations of white-footed mice: Testing matrix model predictions with landscape-scale perturbation experiments.  Landscape Ecology.  Published Online First, doi 10.1007/s10980-008-9239-2

Grear, J.S. and C.E. Burns. 2007. Evaluating effects of low quality habitats on regional population growth in Peromyscus leucopus: Insights from field-parameterized spatial matrix models.  Landscape Ecology.22: 45-60.

Burns, C.E. 2005. Behavioral ecology of disturbed landscapes: The response of territorial animals to relocation. Behavioral Ecology. 16(5): 898-905.

Burns, C.E., B.J. Goodwin, and R.S. Ostfeld. 2005. A prescription for longer-life: bot-fly infection in the white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus. Ecology. 86(3): 753-61.