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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2013

  • Title: The Effects of the Destruction of Eastern Hemlock Trees on the Abundance of Small Rodent Populations
  • Author: James H Leitner (University of Delaware)
  • Abstract:

    The Eastern Hemlock tree, Tsuga Canadensis, is being declined by the invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) insect. The removal of the eastern hemlock may have detrimental effects on small mammal populations as hemlocks provide food and shelter. Small mammals play an important role in vegetation establishment and growth because they disperse seed and fungi. Small mammals were sampled in 2012 and 2013 as part of an ongoing study on small mammal communities in eastern hemlock removal experiments at Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA. Four hemlock treatments (logged, girdled, hemlock control, and hardwood control) were manipulated to simulate the effects of HWA. In 2012, small mammal abundance was much greater than in 2013. I investigated abiotic factors in an attempt to explain the decrease in small mammal abundance in 2013 by using archived data from 2011-2013 and doing correlations between number of captures and temperature as well as precipitation. I hypothesized that the longer winter in 2013 than in 2012 and decrease in temperature may correlate to the decrease in the amount of captures. Temperature was being measured every day and was averaged in each of the treatments. Precipitation was being measured every 10 minutes by the environmental measurement system. After 3,379 trapping nights (traps X nights), I observed rodent captures increased when there is light precipitation, and when the weather is much warmer. I conclude that with warmer summers, capture rates will increase.

  • Research Category: Physiological Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Species Interactions

  • Figures:
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