Road verges provide connectivity for small mammals: a case study with wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) in an agro-silvo pastoral system.

Galantinho, A., Herrera, J.M., Eufrázio, S., Silva, C., Carvalho, F., Alpizar-Jara, R. y Mira, A. Road verges provide connectivity for small mammals: a case study with wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) in an agro-silvo pastoral system. Journal of Environmental Management. [s.l.]: Elsevier. 2020, Vol. 258, pag. 110033. DOI 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.110033

Roads disrupt landscape connectivity for many terrestrial mammals. These infrastructures can be barriers to movement thereby threatening population persistence. Nonetheless, small mammals may use road verges as habitat or corridor, thus increasing migration across intensively managed landscapes. However, in well-preserved habitats where road verges show a similar vegetation structure to surrounding areas, their role is still unknown. Road verges would have an important role as fine-scale connectivity providers for small mammals in a well-preserved habitat depending on land management on road surroundings. We aimed to quantify the effects of road verges and paved lanes on the fine-scale landscape connectivity for the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) in a well-preserved Mediterranean woodland. Additionally, we assessed the impact on connectivity of vegetation cutting on verges and of management in surrounding areas (i.e. firebreaks, grazing, ploughing and cork stripping). We quantified connectivity using graph theory based on two years of capture-recapture data. We compared a set of connectivity metrics (derived from the probability of connectivity index) in a road area and in a virtual roadless scenario. We found that the presence of the road reduced overall fine-scale landscape connectivity, acting as a partial barrier for wood mice movement. However, verges had a key role in promoting movement on road surroundings. Vegetation cutting on verges, and land ploughing in the surrounding landscape were the only management activities compromising connectivity. Our study supports the already known role of road verges as habitat corridors for small mammals. However, it goes beyond existing knowledge by quantifying the connectivity enhancement provided by road verges and demonstrating that this role is highly relevant even in well-preserved landscapes. Therefore, our findings emphasize the critical role of road verges and suggest important management options to enhance landscape connectivity for small mammals.

Datos y Recursos

Metadatos
Descargar
DCAT-AP/NTI-RISP

Información básica
Tipo de recurso Texto
Fecha de creación 17-09-2024
Fecha de última modificación 17-09-2024
Mostrar histórico de cambios
Identificador de los metadatos f255f256-bc8b-5ec5-84a6-6ba6b1cbab1d
Idioma de los metadatos Español
Temáticas (NTI-RISP)
Categoría del conjunto de alto valor (HVD)
Categoría temática ISO 19115 biota
Identificador alternativo
URI de palabras clave
Codificación UTF-8
Información espacial
Identificador INSPIRE ESPMITECOIEPNBFRAGM680
Temas INSPIRE
Identificador geográfico España
Sistema de Referencia de Coordenadas
Tipo de representación espacial
Extensión espacial
"{\"type\": \"Polygon\", \"coordinates\": [[[-18.16, 27.64], [4.32, 27.64], [4.32, 43.79], [-18.16, 43.79], [-18.16, 27.64]]]}"
Resolución espacial del dataset (m)
Procedencia
Declaración de linaje
Perfil de Metadatos
Conformidad
Conjunto de datos de origen
Frecuencia de actualización
Fuentes
  1. Journal of Environmental Management. Vol. 258
  2. pags. 110033
Propósito
Pasos del proceso
Cobertura temporal (Inicio)
Cobertura temporal (Fin)
Notas sobre la versión
Versión
Vigencia del conjunto de datos
Parte responsable
Nombre del autor Galantinho, A., Herrera, J.M., Eufrázio, S., Silva, C., Carvalho, F., Alpizar-Jara, R. y Mira, A.
Nombre del mantenedor
Identificador del autor
Email del autor
Web del autor
Identificador del mantenedor
Email del mantenedor
Web del mantenedor