Abstract
Acorn crops and rodent populations [bank vole (Myodes glareolus), yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis), and wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)] were monitored for 11 years (2002–2012) in mature oak commercial forests in South Moravia (the Czech Republic). Large acorn crops, marking so-called seed years, were recorded in 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Acorn crops were repeated with period of 3–4 years. The abundance of all three species correlated positively with size of the acorn crop in the previous year. However, significant relationship between the size of the crop and grow of the population was found only in Apodemus flavicollis. Probably because of its food specialty, this species was most affected by acorn crops. Acorn crops had an effect on the breeding season of all monitored rodent species. In autumn of the seed years, the breeding period was prolonged in both Apodemus species; on the contrary, the crop had no major impact on bank voles. The higher the crop, the earlier A. flavicollis began to reproduce in the spring and the sooner it reached its peak and end of reproduction in a given year. The beginning, peak, and end of reproduction were significantly later in bank vole than in Apodemus spp. Lower North Atlantic Oscillation index (i.e. higher temperatures in the vegetation season and lower during winter, “NAO” hereinafter) was more suitable for Apodemus flavicollis. Higher values of the wNAO (winter NAO index) had a positive impact on Apodemus spp. while bank voles were not affected by this.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by Grant NAZV QK1820091 (The Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors are very much obliged to Luboš Purchart and numerous students for help with fieldwork and Eva Čepelková for language correction. Further, two anonymous reviewers gave valuable comments on a previous version of this paper and are greatly acknowledged for their help.
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Čepelka, L., Šipoš, J., Suchomel, J. et al. Can we detect response differences among dominant rodent species to climate and acorn crop in a Central European forest environment?. Eur J Forest Res 139, 539–548 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-020-01267-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-020-01267-7