Lazăr Anamaria, Sandu Marcela Alexandra, Benedek Ana Maria, Sîrbu Ioan
Faculty of Food and Tourism, Transylvania University of Braşov, Eroilor Bd. 29, 500362 Braşov, Romania.
Doctoral School in Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, 91-95 Splaiul Independenței, 050096 Bucharest, Romania.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Jun 24;15(13):1857. doi: 10.3390/ani15131857.
Small mammals are common in farmland, where their communities are affected by agricultural management. However, so far, no clear patterns have emerged, its effect varying in accordance with the ecological context, spatial scale, and geographic area. We aimed to assess whether the discontinuation of land cultivation and pasture grazing leads to significant changes in the abundance, diversity, and composition of small mammal communities. These were surveyed in transects of live traps set in used and abandoned arable fields and pastures in highly patched agricultural landscapes in Transylvania (Romania). Farmland abandonment was positively related to species richness, taxonomic and functional diversity, and abundance. Its effect was stronger in pastures, where intensive grazing is a limiting factor for small mammals. Functional trait composition was also sensitive to fallowing and abandonment of grazing, which promote diurnal activity, broader niches, and lower fertility. In conclusion, small mammals benefit from the maintenance of uncultivated plots and low numbers of grazing livestock, which we recommend as management strategy in traditional mosaic landscapes, to support taxonomic and functional biodiversity with implications in ecosystem service functionality. Our results also revealed more diverse communities than those showcased by similar studies in central and western Europe, with similar overall abundances.
小型哺乳动物在农田中很常见，其群落受到农业管理的影响。然而，到目前为止，尚未出现明确的模式，其影响因生态环境、空间尺度和地理区域而异。我们旨在评估停止土地耕种和牧场放牧是否会导致小型哺乳动物群落的丰度、多样性和组成发生显著变化。我们在罗马尼亚特兰西瓦尼亚高度破碎化的农业景观中，对已使用和废弃的耕地及牧场中设置的活捕陷阱样带进行了调查。农田弃耕与物种丰富度、分类和功能多样性以及丰度呈正相关。在牧场中其影响更强，因为过度放牧是小型哺乳动物的一个限制因素。功能性状组成也对休耕和停止放牧敏感，休耕和停止放牧会促进日间活动、更广泛的生态位和更低的繁殖力。总之，小型哺乳动物受益于未耕种地块的维持和少量放牧牲畜的存在，我们建议将此作为传统镶嵌景观中的管理策略，以支持分类和功能生物多样性，这对生态系统服务功能具有重要意义。我们的研究结果还显示，与中欧和西欧类似研究展示的群落相比，这里的群落更加多样，总体丰度相似。
