Julius Kuehn Institute-Federal Research Center for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection in Horticulture and Forest, Vertebrate Research, Muenster, Germany.
University Muenster, Faculty of Geosciences. Institute for Landscape Ecology, Muenster, Germany.
Pest Manag Sci. 2019 Apr;75(4):908-914. doi: 10.1002/ps.5211. Epub 2018 Nov 13.
Population collapses in small mammals occur naturally after natural disasters and during multi-annual population fluctuations as well as after man-made intervention such as rodent management action. Although there has been extensive previous work on patterns and mechanisms of population fluctuations and cyclicity, little is known about population recovery after collapse. In Europe, the common vole (Microtus arvalis) is the major pest species in agriculture, damaging crops, competing with livestock and potentially posing a health risk to people. In this study, we investigated population recovery, recovery mechanism and recovery time of common vole populations after artificially inducing a collapse through rodenticide application.
The rodenticide treatment reduced abundance in spring (by about 90%) but not in summer. Demographic data (age, sex-ratio, breeding activity) suggest that it was mostly immigration and not reproduction that led to population recovery after collapse.
The findings indicate that rodenticide treatment should be conducted in spring before the main reproductive season starts. The treatment effect was transient and lasted for about 3 months before immigration offset the initial reduction in population abundance. This indicates that immigration patterns should be considered by managing vole populations at an appropriate spatial scale and frequency to prevent rapid repopulation. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.
小型哺乳动物的种群崩溃会自然发生，例如在自然灾害后、多年的种群波动期间以及人为干预（如灭鼠行动）之后。尽管先前已经广泛研究了种群波动和周期性的模式和机制，但对于崩溃后的种群恢复知之甚少。在欧洲，普通田鼠（Microtus arvalis）是农业中的主要害虫，会破坏庄稼，与牲畜竞争，并且可能对人类健康构成威胁。在这项研究中，我们通过使用灭鼠剂人为诱导种群崩溃，从而调查了普通田鼠种群的恢复、恢复机制和恢复时间。
灭鼠剂处理降低了春季（约 90%）而非夏季的丰度。人口统计数据（年龄、性别比、繁殖活动）表明，主要是由于种群崩溃后的移民而不是繁殖导致了种群的恢复。
研究结果表明，应该在主要繁殖季节开始之前的春季进行灭鼠剂处理。处理效果是短暂的，大约在移民抵消初始种群丰度减少之前持续 3 个月。这表明，在适当的空间尺度和频率上管理田鼠种群时，应该考虑移民模式，以防止种群迅速重新繁殖。 © 2018 英国化学学会。
