Short-term impacts of prescribed fire on a rodent community in desertgrasslands.

摘要

We compared vegetation features and rodent communities between a recently burned area and a nearby control area, and also these same areas 1 year prior to the fire treatment. Bare ground increased and grass and litter decreased following the burn. We did not detect differences in cover of trees and shrubs. Rodent communities did not differ in size or species richness between burned and unburned grids. Total number of rodents on both grids increased in the year of the burn, with the unburned grid showing the greater increase. These increases seem unrelated to the burn treatment. There appeared to be a relative change in proportions of bipedal and quadrupedal heteromyids on burned and control grids.