Download or read book Population Dynamics of White-footed Mice (Peromyscus Leucopus) in a Tornado-impacted Forest in Southern Illinois written by Leslie B. Rodman and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White-footed mice ( Peromyscus leucopus ) are one of the most prevalent species in deciduous forest ecosystems in eastern United States and depend on coarse woody debris (CWD) for travel routes, nesting areas, shelter, and a stable thermal environment. In May 2003 an F4 tornado with wind speeds ranging from 330-416 km/h traveled through Mermet Lake Conservation Area (MLCA) in southern Illinois and impacted 166 ha of forest by uprooting and splintering trees. My objective was to compare the population dynamics of white-footed mice in disturbed and undisturbed habitats. Three transects (B-undisturbed, C-disturbed/unsalvaged, and D-disturbed/salvaged) were sampled once a month from October 2004-October 2005. A fourth transect (E-undisturbed/burn) was sampled once a month from December 2004-October 2005. Five-hundred forty-seven individual white-footed mice were captured 1355 times at MLCA. They composed 77.9% of the 702 individual small mammals captured during 8454 trap nights, and were the only species with a large enough sample size to be included in the analyses. Minimum number known alive enumeration method indicated that most of the white-footed mice captured during the 2004-2005 trapping period were located within the tornado-disturbed transects. Overall, population measures on all four transects peaked during November 2004 through January 2005, then began to decrease toward the end of the trapping period. The numbers of white-footed mice captured on disturbed transects were an order of magnitude greater than on the undisturbed transects. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated the undisturbed and disturbed sites were significantly different in their monthly abundance estimates (F=39.25, df=1,2, P=0.0245). There was a highly significant time effect (F=9.13, df=12,22, P