Diversity of Small Mammals in Forest and Prairie Habitats

Abstract

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.