2024-03-29T00:45:42Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1423042021-09-27T07:33:57Zcom_10261_16com_10261_8com_10261_108col_10261_269col_10261_361
A comparison of methods for estimating common vole (Microtus arvalis) abundance in agricultural habitats
Jareño, Daniel
Viñuela, Javier
Luque-Larena, Juan José
Arroyo, Leticia
Arroyo, Beatriz
Mougeot, François
European Commission
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España)
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
Indirect abundance index
Spain
Alfalfa
Clipping
Dropping
Trapping
Rodent outbreaks cause significant crop damages in agricultural areas worldwide, but routinely monitoring large areas at low cost remains a challenge. The common vole Microtus arvalis has recently colonized the agricultural plains of the northern Iberian Plateau, an area where it has started to produce population outbreaks with important impacts in agriculture, the environment and human health. Vole monitoring has become of prime importance to implement preventive management measures to control populations. In order to find a simple and reliable vole monitoring method to be applied in large areas, we compared abundance estimates derived from three methods: capture-mark-recapture (CMR), single capture events (SCE) and presence/absence of vole activity signs (VAS) during three seasons and on the main agricultural habitats in the study area. We show that an activity index based on the presence of fresh droppings and/or clippings had a similar performance to SCE in a large sample of plots (n = 222) across habitats and seasons. Data obtained with both methods (SCE, VAS) were also well correlated with those obtained with CMR, despite a limited sample size (n = 23 CMR plots). We suggest that the VAS method, which is a cheaper and easier alternative to trapping methods, provides a promising tool for scientists and managers to implement large scale monitoring of common vole in agricultural areas.
Funding was from the ECOCYCLES project (BIODIVERSA. ERA-net project, European Union's 6th Framework Programme for Research); PhD grant JAE-Predoc, from the CSIC, jointly funded by the European Social Fund to D.J. This study also contributes to the projects ECOVOLE (CGL2012-35348) and TOPILLAZO (CGL2011-30274/BOS) funded by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain.
Peer Reviewed
2017-01-10T08:28:16Z
2017-01-10T08:28:16Z
2014
2017-01-10T08:28:16Z
artículo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.07.019
issn: 1470-160X
e-issn: 1872-7034
Ecological Indicators 36: 111-119 (2014)
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/142304
10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.07.019
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000780
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003339
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003329
Postprint
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.07.019
Sí
open
Elsevier