Of Mice and Men in Gabon: Changes in Rodent Communities Associated with Logging and Hunting
Abstract
Worldwide tropical rainforests are under increasing pressure from timber extraction
and bushmeat hunting. Hunting and logging have been linked to long-term reductions
in carbon storage potential, loss of floristic diversity, and diminished regeneration
of valued timber species. Many studies have focused on the consequences of hunting
on medium and large bodied mammals and how shifts in their population affect forest
dynamics. Far less work has been carried out on how small mammal communities may be
indirectly affected by hunting and logging despite indications that their communities
are likely altered by anthropogenic disturbance. Because of their important role as
seed predators, changes in rodent populations could substantially alter long-term
trajectories of vegetation communities. In this study, I investigate whether rodent
communities and seed predation in the forests of Northeastern Gabon are altered by
hunting and logging as well as changes in forest structure potentially caused by these
disturbances. I hypothesized that I would find elevated abundance, biomass, and diversity
of rodents as well as higher rates of rodent seed predation in hunted and logged sites
compared to protected sites. Moreover, I hypothesized that changes in forest structure
associated with disturbance, such as dense understories and high densities of lianas,
would accompany these shifts in the small mammal community. Employing rodent trapping
and seed predation trials at sites in and around the Ivindo National Park and surrounding
villages, I found no change in the number, total biomass, or level of seed predation
of rodents associated with human impact. However, I detected a significant shift in
rodent species composition from small-bodied species dominating protected sites to
large-bodied species dominating disturbed sites with hunting and logging. This change
in the rodent community was associated with decreased understory openness, increased
downed wood basal area, and increased numbers of lianas. This first documentation
of changes in Central African rodent communities associated with hunting and logging
lays an important foundation to future work determining the role of small mammals
in long-term alterations in forest structure with implications for both conservation
and timber management.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9607Citation
Markham, Ian (2015). Of Mice and Men in Gabon: Changes in Rodent Communities Associated with Logging and
Hunting. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9607.Collections
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