Across the Midwestern United States, farmers have increasingly used winter cover crops in corn–soybean rotations to improve soil health. Although this practice has many benefits, it also can provide habitat for potential pest species, such as voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus and M. ochrogaster). Voles have been reported by farmers to damage soybean plants in fields which had recently been cover cropped, but little has been done to quantify levels of damage related to their abundance. We evaluated the relationship between vole sign and soybean plant damage to help farmers manage this unintended consequence of using cover crops. We counted the frequency of vole sign along transects in cover‐cropped fields. In addition to vole sign, we considered influence of cover‐crop density, distance to field edge, and presence of artificial raptor perches when fitting negative binomial generalised linear mixed models to predict amount of soybean plant damage. An additive model including all explanatory variables and factors best explained variation in vole damage. Number of burrow entrances, presence of raptor perches, and cover‐crop density were positively associated with soybean plant damage. Burrow entrances were most strongly associated with damage. Farmers can use frequency of burrow entrances to predict relative amounts of damage likely to be incurred; conditions in a field should be considered when deciding to manage for reduced vole populations before planting soybeans.

中文翻译：

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田鼠活动调查预测对套作大豆植物的损害

在美国中西部地区，农民越来越多地利用冬季种植的玉米-大豆轮作来改善土壤健康。尽管这种做法有很多好处，但它也可以为潜在的害虫物种（例如田鼠（田鼠（Microtus pennsylvanicus和and蝇））提供栖息地。）。农民已经报道了田鼠害害了最近被复种的田地中的大豆植物，但是几乎没有量化与其丰度相关的损害程度。我们评估了田鼠标志与大豆植物损害之间的关系，以帮助农民应对使用遮盖作物的意外后果。我们计算了田间覆盖田地中田鼠的横断面田鼠出现的频率。除田鼠标志外，我们在拟合负二项式广义线性混合模型以预测大豆植物受损量时还考虑了覆盖作物密度，到田间边缘的距离以及人工猛禽栖息地的存在的影响。包含所有解释变量和因素的加性模型可以最好地解释田鼠伤害的变化。洞穴入口数量，猛禽栖息地的存在，作物的覆盖率和覆盖密度与大豆植株的损害呈正相关。洞穴入口与破坏最密切相关。农民可以利用洞穴入口的频率来预测可能发生的相对破坏程度；在决定种植大豆之前要减少田鼠种群的数量时，应考虑田间条件。