Forest to wildlife opening: habitat gradient analysis among small mammals in the southern Appalachians

We examined relative abundance as well as richness, diversity, and evenness values of shrews and rodents along habitat gradients associated with fescu e (Festuca spp.)-dominated wildlife opening/forest ecotones in five high el evation, northern hardwood communities in western North Carolina. During 12 000 trap-nights, we collected 831 small mammals. Smoky shrews (Sorex fumeus ), pine voles (Microtus pinetorum), white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) , and woodland jumping mice (Napaeozapus insignis) exhibited no significant differences along the wildlife opening/forest gradient. The relative abund ances of masked shrews (S. cinereus) and red-backed voles (Clethrionomys ga pperi) were highest along the edge ecotone between wildlife openings and th e forest gradient. Relative abundance of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) increased with increasing distance from the wildlife opening/forest edge. Measures of coarse woody debris (CWD), an important habitat component for m any small mammal species, showed a strong,gradient for increased loading fr om the wildlife openings to the forest interior. Abundance of deer mice was strongly positively correlated with CWD loadings. Our results show that ha bitat generalists such as the masked shrew respond favorably to the microha bitat heterogeneity produced along an edge. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.