Animal Sciences Commons^™

Small Mammal Diversity Varies By Vegetative Cover (Greene County, Ohio), Shannon Swicker, Kaytlin (Goodwin) Huizinga, Mark A. Gathany

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

Although agricultural needs are pressing and crop sales are vital for the local economies in southern Ohio, the resulting clearing of land has removed much of the state’s forests and natural prairies. A variety of species depend upon these habitats that have been reduced resulting in a potentially narrower ecological niche. In this study, we seek to determine the species richness and diversity of small mammals in three habitats (old field, forest, and lawn) and to evaluate factors affecting their activity. Our experimental results supported our hypothesis that the lawn site would have lower diversity than the other two sites. …