Browsing by Subject "Mammalogy"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Diversity of Small Mammals in Forest and Prairie Habitats
    (2010-11-30) Dunlap, Jane
    The prairie habitat of North America used to span the entire center of our nation as well as southern portions of Canada. Today however, it has been reduced by more than 70% (Samson et al 2004). Tall grass prairies took the greatest loss of approximately 99.8% (Carey 2000). The major reason for this loss is European settlement initiated by the Homestead Act of 1862 which sold allotments of prairie for farming. The disturbance of this major ecosystem not only affected the actual land purchased, but it also disrupted the natural cycle of the surrounding wild prairie. Without a natural burn to return nitrogen to the soil and cut down woody growth the prairie can quickly be converted into woodland (Matlack et al 2008). This can and did affect the diversity of wildlife on the prairie, causing the depletion of original prairie inhabitants while allowing forest dwellers to survive. In this study we compared the small mammal diversity of several different forest habitats to that of the prairie. We predicted that there will be a higher diversity on the prairie sites than in the forest sites.
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    Diversity Within Small Mammal Communities of Forested Sites Around Itasca State Park and Nearby Prairie Sites
    (2011-02-09) Hughes, Curtis; Do, Anh
    The study dealing with diversity of small mammal communities found within several different forest habitats in Itasca State Park and nearby Prairie sites, tested the two sites diversity comparison’s and displayed which communities had small mammals which were common in both locations. The prairie had the most abundant small mammal diversity. The most common small mammal in all of the communities was the Peromyscus (PEXX).
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    Diversity Within Small Mammal Communities of Forested Sites Around Itasca State Park and Nearby Prairie Sites
    (2011-02-09) Maloney, Connor
    After many days of trapping small rodents throughout various forest and prairie areas near Itasca State Park, it was discovered that the amount of species within these communities was strikingly similar. The forested areas were broken down into five different locations while the prairie was broken down into six. This was done to see whether or not diverse habitat composition effects the populations of small mammals. My hypothesis was that the forest habitat would contain a significantly greater diversity of species because of the more apparent differences in habitat structure. This was based on my belief that this wide variety of habitats provide for a greater occurrence of species adaptation and therefore a greater diversity.