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Burns, Buckets, and Traps: Assessing Small Mammal Species Richness and Abundance Following Wildfires in a Northern New York Jack Pine Barren
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Fall 2024
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2024-12-17
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Wildfires have a significant impact on ecosystems and wildlife populations across the world. The Altona Flat Rock is a rare sandstone barren ecosystem dominated by fire-dependent jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and has a sporadic history of burns with the most recent occurring in 2018. This recent fire has significantly altered the ecosystem structure and resource availability, affecting the small mammal community, as well as contributing to higher-level trophic implications ecosystem-wide. Our goal was to collect data on the small mammal species richness and abundance between the recent 2018 burn site, a relatively older 1957 burn site, and a nearby mixed deciduous forest using both Sherman traps and bucket camera traps. We predicted to find more diversity in small mammals at the mixed deciduous forest site and with the bucket camera traps. Data was collected by setting Sherman traps overnight along transects at each site and identifying, weighing, measuring, and determining the sex of all individuals caught before releasing them. Bucket camera data was captured using a motion triggered game camera and analyzed by determining the lowest number of individuals that visited each night. According to the Sherman trapping data, the mixed-deciduous forest and 2018 site had the lowest species diversity (S=2) compared to the older 1957 burn site (S=4), however in field observations and camera bucket data shows that species diversity is likely greatest in the mixed deciduous site (S=5). Long-term data in the 2018 and 1957 burn sites indicate potential shifts in the small mammal community with 2024 being the most diverse year in the sampling history (S=2 and S=4). Our results illustrate the potential recovery of the small mammal community in the 2018 burn site as well as the efficacy of bucket camera methodology for conducting species richness surveys. Results from this study will be helpful for informing future land management practices involving fire, as well as for future research involving sampling small mammals.