1. How does the 120-year cycle mast seeding of dwarf bamboo affect the rodent population?
- Author
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Suzuki, Hanami, Kashiwagi, Haruka, and Kajimura, Hisashi
- Abstract
Background: In 2017, large-scale flowering, seeding, and dying events of dwarf bamboo (Sasa borealis) occurred in a wide range in central Japan for the first time in 120 years. This phenomenon of S. borealis, like the mast seeding of trees, could be expected to provide a large amount of food for seed-eating rodents and gradually affect their ecology and population dynamics. We captured rodents in survey plots in a secondary broad-leaved forest with the phenomenon from 2018 to 2019 to investigate the species, the number of individuals, growing stage, sex, and body mass. In addition, we also compared the capture data for 2 years (2018–2019) with that for the mast seeding year (2017) and 6 years before it (2011–2016). Results: The mast seeding of S. borealisgreatly increased the population size of rodents, especially Apodemus speciosusand A. argenteus. Conversely, Eothenomys smithiidid not show such an increase. Most of the captured rodent individuals were already adults at the time of new capture, and the proportion of male juveniles was extremely low. These results suggest that the mast seeding of S. borealiscreated unusually rich food availability for the population concentration of rodents due to their immigration. However, body mass was not significantly different before and after the mast seeding. In addition, the increased populations of the two Apodemusspecies did not decline 2 years after the S. borealismasting, contrary to the previously reported decrease of rodent populations after tree masting. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the mast seeding of S. borealisaffected the population dynamics of Apodemusspecies over a long time and their individual composition of different growth stages. However, it did not affect their body mass.
- Published
- 2022
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