Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
W.M. Keck Science Department, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges, Claremont, California, USA.
J Anim Ecol. 2024 Jun;93(6):743-754. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.14067. Epub 2024 Feb 28.
Animal space use and spatial overlap can have important consequences for population-level processes such as social interactions and pathogen transmission. Identifying how environmental variability and inter-individual variation affect spatial patterns and in turn influence interactions in animal populations is a priority for the study of animal behaviour and disease ecology. Environmental food availability and macroparasite infection are common drivers of variation, but there are few experimental studies investigating how they affect spatial patterns of wildlife. Bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) are a tractable study system to investigate spatial patterns of wildlife and are amenable to experimental manipulations. We conducted a replicated, factorial field experiment in which we provided supplementary food and removed helminths in vole populations in natural forest habitat and monitored vole space use and spatial overlap using capture-mark-recapture methods. Using network analysis, we quantified vole space use and spatial overlap. We compared the effects of food supplementation and helminth removal and investigated the impacts of season, sex and reproductive status on space use and spatial overlap. We found that food supplementation decreased vole space use while helminth removal increased space use. Space use also varied by sex, reproductive status and season. Spatial overlap was similar between treatments despite up to threefold differences in population size. By quantifying the spatial effects of food availability and macroparasite infection on wildlife populations, we demonstrate the potential for space use and population density to trade-off and maintain consistent spatial overlap in wildlife populations. This has important implications for spatial processes in wildlife including pathogen transmission.
动物的空间利用和空间重叠对种群水平的过程（如社会互动和病原体传播）可能有重要影响。确定环境变异性和个体间变异如何影响空间格局，进而影响动物种群的相互作用，是动物行为和疾病生态学研究的重点。环境食物可利用性和大型寄生虫感染是变异的常见驱动因素，但很少有实验研究调查它们如何影响野生动物的空间格局。林姬鼠（Clethrionomys glareolus）是一个可用于研究野生动物空间格局的可行研究系统，并且可以进行实验操作。我们进行了一项重复的、基于因子的野外实验，在自然森林栖息地的田鼠种群中提供补充食物并去除寄生虫，使用捕获-标记-再捕获方法监测田鼠的空间利用和空间重叠。我们使用网络分析来量化田鼠的空间利用和空间重叠。我们比较了食物补充和寄生虫去除的影响，并调查了季节、性别和繁殖状态对空间利用和空间重叠的影响。我们发现，食物补充减少了田鼠的空间利用，而寄生虫去除增加了空间利用。空间利用还因性别、繁殖状态和季节而异。尽管种群大小差异高达三倍，但处理之间的空间重叠相似。通过量化食物可利用性和大型寄生虫感染对野生动物种群的空间影响，我们证明了空间利用和种群密度在野生动物种群中可能存在权衡关系，并保持一致的空间重叠。这对野生动物的空间过程（包括病原体传播）有重要意义。
