Microhabitat preferences of some rodent species in a community living in the high-montane zone of the Republic of Dagestan

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Abstract

The microhabitat distribution, the position of spatial niches and the abundance of eight mouse-like rodent species living in the high-montane zone of the Republic of Dagestan were assessed. Twenty environmental parameters were selected, 16 of which discriminated interspecific differences significantly. The distribution of rodents relative to environmental parameters was shown to make the greatest contribution to interspecific differences and species preferences for the habitats and microhabitats of all rodents. The rodent species in the study area can be divided into four groups (guilds): forest species and open-space species, rocky-gravel species and near-water species. The results of pairwise comparisons of the spatial niches of the rodent species considered revealed low values of their overlap.

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About the authors

M. Sh. Magomedov

Caspian Institute of Biological Resources, Dagestan Federal Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: mmsh78@mail.ru
Russian Federation, 368025, Makhachkala

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Supplementary files

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2. Fig. 1. Characteristics of the parameters of spatial niches, according to which the maximum differentiation of the distribution of species of the rodent community occurs.

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3. Fig. 2. The scattering diagram of the canonical values of the species of the rodent community in question in the space of discriminant functions.

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