Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok XI. - Natura Somogyiensis 26. (Kaposvár, 2015)
Gábor A. - Horváth Gy. - Ortmann-né Ajkai A. - Csicsek G.: Quantitative classification of macrohabitats for small mammals' habitat segregation surveys in a forest reserve
Natura Somogyiensis 26 123-134 Kaposvár, 2015 Quantitative classification of macrohabitats for small mammals’ habitat segregation surveys in a forest reserve Anna Gábor1, Győző Horváth1, Adrienne Ortmann-né Ajkai2 & Gábor Csicsek1 'University of Pécs, Faculty of Science, Department of Ecology H-7624, Pécs, Ifjúság street 6., email: gabor.anna@freemail.hu 2University of Pécs, Faculty of Science, Department of Hidrobiology H-7624, Pécs, Ifjúság street 6. Gábor, A., Horváth, Gy., Ortmann-né Ajkai, A., & Csicsek, G.: Quantitative classification of macrohabitats for small mammals ’ habitat segregation surveys in a forest reserve. Abstract: To investigation of coexistent small mammals’ macro-habitat association first we discriminated three habitat groups of the 13 small mammal monitoring quadrats which were placed in Kőszegi-forrás Forest Reserve based on their age and structure using biotic variables. Than we used number of captures to show how dominant small mammal species differed between groups. Keywords: habitat, old-growth forests, PCA, cluster analysis Introduction Old-growth forests of the different climatic zones include a remarkable variety of habitats for plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms, representing a diversity hotspot. Diverse macro- and micro-habitats harbours many communities, not only representing higher taxonomic diversity due to their complex food web system, but also have greater functional or ecological diversity. However, this biodiversity is threatened by natural and human disturbance such as direct and indirect human activities, including deforestation, fragmentation and the degradation of forest habitats which may lead to species replacement, for example increasing the distribution of non-native species (Klenner et al. 2009). Thus it is important to investigate how habitat diversity affects ecosystem functions such as productivity and ecosystem stability via taxonomic diversity (Angelstam et al. 1997, Bengtsson et al. 2000). Small mammals, due to their high reproduction rate, rapid demographic changes, and short turnover are often used as a sensitive indicator species group to demonstrate and evaluate these negative effects in different managed and unmanaged forest habitats (e.g. Carey & Johnson 1995, Pearce & Venier 2005, Converse et al. 2006). They are important elements of food webs; among other they are dispersers of seeds and micor- rhizae and also important seed predators and seed dispersers (Vander Wall et al. 2001, Frank et al. 2009). Small mammal communities are good indicators of habitat quality
