Surkova E., Savinetskaya L., Tchabovsky A.
RJEE Vol. 9 (2). 2024 | DOI: 10.21685/2500-0578-2024-2-1
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Receipt date 06.02.24 | Publication date 26.06.2024
SPECIES-SPECIFIC RESPONSE OF RODENTS TO STEPPIFICATION AND DESERTIFICATION OF RANGELANDS IN KALMYKIA
E.N. Surkova1, L.E. Savinetskaya2, A.V. Chabovskiy3
1, 2, 3 A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
1 immaly@yandex.ru
Abstract. Ecological resilience, defined as the amount of disturbance that a system can withstand before it shifts into an alternative stable state, is a fundamental property of ecosystems and other biological systems. By the end of the 1980s, unregulated livestock production and overgrazing resulted in the desertification of rangelands in Kalmykia (southern Russia). In the early 1990s, a drastic and considerable reduction in livestock numbers led to vegetation restoration and steppification of rangelands. In the last decade, the increase in grazing impact has launched a new process of desertification. We studied the population dynamics of the keystone rodent species (the midday gerbil – Meriones meridianus, the tamarisk gerbil – M. tamariscinus and the social vole – Microtus socialis) to identify general patterns and species-specific features of their response to the landscape transformations. We compared the speed and the strength of the species responses to the landscape changes, the stability of regimes of population dynamics, and the threshold effects when they change. Under landscape changes from desert to steppe and back to desert, the population dynamics of all studied rodent species demonstrated non-stationarity, threshold step-like transitions between stable regimes and the synchronicity of tipping points caused by weather anomalies. The general patterns of non-stationary dynamics were similar across different species. However, species differed in the dynamic population characteristics, such as the duration of the regimes, the amplitude of step-like shifts between them, and the overall resistance of populations to environmental changes (resilience). Species-specific differences in dynamic patterns of response are consistent with their ecological specialization and preferences: the higher the specialization, the shorter the stable dynamic regimes, the greater the amplitude of abrupt shifts between them, and the less the overall population resistance to landscape changes.
Keywords: ecological resilience, species specific response, grazing ecosystems, desertification, rodents
Acknowledgments: we thank D.V. Pozharisky, Ya.A. Chabovskaya, N.L. Ovchinnikova, D.B. Vasilyev, V.S. Shved and other colleagues for their help in collecting research materials.
Financing: this research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project number 22-74-00147, https://rscf.ru/project/22-74-00147/.
For citation: Surkova E.N., Savinetskaya L.E., Chabovskiy A.V. Species-specific response of rodents to steppification and desertification of rangelands in Kalmykia. Russian Journal of Ecosystem Ecology. 2024;9(2). (In Russ.). Available from: https://doi.org/10.21685/2500-0578-2024-2-1