Open AccessThe fruits available as food to small rodents in two woodland ecosystems
Author(s) -
Smal C. M.,
Fairley J. S.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
ecography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.973
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1600-0587
pISSN - 0906-7590
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0587.1980.tb00703.x
Subject(s) - apodemus , woodland , biology , wood mouse , quercus petraea , understory , ecosystem , crop , canopy , clethrionomys glareolus , botany , ecology , population , demography , sociology
The fruit fall from the canopy and the understorey in an oak Quercus petraea (Mattushka) Liebl. wood and in a yew Taxus baccata L. wood at Killarney, Ireland, were measured over a period of approximately 13 months; this included two complete fruit crops in each wood. Fruit represents the great bulk of the food of the small rodents present: wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus (L.) and bank voles Clethrionomys glareolus Schreber. From a knowledge of the particular fruits or their parts eaten, the amounts of available food, in kcal ha ‐1 were derived. In each ecosystem the food potentially available to small rodents in one crop was five times that in the other.