0000000000416870
AUTHOR
Ioan Sîrbu
BythinellaMoquin-Tandon, 1856 (Gastropoda: Rissooidea: Bythinellidae) in Romania: species richness in a glacial refugium
Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS-1) sequences were analysed in 12 Romanian Bythinella populations. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian techniques. For COI, the Kimura two-parameter (K2P) distances and haplotype networks were computed. Two sympatric and four allopatric groups were distinguished. The K2P distances are similar to those for congeneric rissooids, so each of the six groups represents a species. Two are identified as Bythinella molcsanyi H. Wagner, 1941, and Bythinella dacica Grossu, 1946. The other four groups cannot be ascribed to any known Bythinella. The occur…
Small Mammals in Forests of Romania: Habitat Type Use and Additive Diversity Partitioning
Small mammals are key components of forest ecosystems, playing vital roles for numerous groups of forest organisms: they exert bottom-up and top-down regulatory effects on vertebrate and invertebrate populations, respectively
Forest snail faunas from Transylvania (Romania) and their relationship to the faunas of Central and Northern Europe
Forty-three forest sites in seven sampling areas in mountainous parts of Transylvania were sampled to obtain inventories of their snail faunas, and to make comparisons between these and the faunas of similar sites further north along the Carpathian chain. Sampling areas ran from close to the Ukrainian border in the north to Retezat in the south-west. Altogether, 83 species were found, as well as between 19 and 40 species at individual sites. Sites within the same sampling area had more species in common than in among-area comparisons, although differences between areas did not relate to the distance between them. Such differences appear to be related more to ecological factors than to geogr…
Effects of Long-Term Habitat Protection on Montane Small Mammals: Are Sorex araneus and S. minutus More Sensitive Than Previously Considered?
Protection of natural areas by restricting human activities aims to preserve plant and animal populations and whole communities, ensuring the conservation of biological diversity and enhancement of ecosystem services. Therefore, it is expected that the longer the protection, the stronger the desired effects. We evaluated the responses of small mammals at the population and community levels under protection in the southern Carpathian Mountains. We surveyed small mammals for five years in sites with long- and short-term protection and non-protected. Besides protection status, we included elevation, habitat heterogeneity, and the month of survey as predictors in our models. As response variabl…
Dynamics of small-mammal communities along an elevational gradient
Elevation is one of the most important natural gradients that is strongly shaping communities across relatively small areas. However, few studies have followed the temporal dynamics of elevational patterns, even in organisms for which population and community fluctuations have been extensively studied, such as rodents. Here we report the multiannual dynamics of small-mammal communities along an elevational gradient in the Southern Carpathians. During a 5-year survey, we conducted live-trapping in forested and shrubby habitats, at elevations between 820 and 2040 m. We used partial constrained multivariate analysis and mixed-effects models to test the effect of elevation, year, and their int…
Responses of small mammal communities to environment and agriculture in a rural mosaic landscape
Intensification of agriculture is an increasing threat for biodiversity. Central Romania still preserves a traditional rural landscape with a matrix of small plots of crops and large surfaces covered by grasslands and forests, but its biodiversity is very poorly studied. Small mammals are key components of agrarian and semi-natural ecosystems but rodents are also viewed as major pests. Knowledge of the driving factors of small mammal communities in agricultural landscapes may enable taking management measures that pursue both conservation and economic goals. Here we evaluate the response of small mammals to environmental variables, including vegetation characteristics, land use and geograph…