Pests

Area of distribution and damage of Old World Harvest Mouse (Micromys minutus Pallas)

Object description Download GIS-layers

Authors:

Object specialist F.A. Karlik, GIS-specialist M.I. Saulich

Date of creation:

11.02.2004

Scale:

1:20 000 000.

Accuracy of map:

Map was created based on materials of maps of natural scale 1:11 000 000; 1: 80 000 000 and 1: 120 000 000.

Projection:

"Alber.s Equal Conica for the USSR", 9, 1001, 7, 100, 0, 44, 68, 0, 0.

Basic contents:

Vector map. Area of species distribution is shown by polygons. Zones of recorded mass outbreak are shown by polygons.

Accuracy of classifier:

Within the area of distribution the zone of low damage is established according to the extent of colonization of agricultural lands, where the index of relative population density is usually less than 10 nests per 1 hectare. Local foci of excessive population density appear in some years with the conditions being most favorable for rodents activity, where there are to 200-300 nests per 1 hectare.
Amount of surface nests per 1 hectare is used in practice to assess M. minutus numbers in agricultural lands because individuals of this species are usually not caught by standard traps.

Method of map production:

Scientists were given maps with boundaries of Oblasts and arable lands. After reviewing historic literature, species distribution was hand drawn on maps. If data were on the Oblast-level, distribution is on the Oblast level. In some cases, Oblast.s are further refined by boundaries of the Arable Land Map (Koroljeva et al., 2003). Hand drawn maps were scanned, georeferenced and vectorized. The following sources were used to develop map of distribution: Bobrinsky (1965), Flint et al. (1970), Pavlinov (2002). Limits of the zones of low damage were determined according to the map of distribution in the Far East (Kostenko, 1976), where this rodent species harms most significantly in years of its mass reproduction, which take place periodically, once during 4-6 years. The specification of configuration of damage zone is performed on vector layer of location of grain crops being the main among damaged cultures.

Reference citations:

Bobrinskii N.A., Kuznetsov B.A., Kuzyakin A.P. 1965. Keys to Mammals of the USSR. Moscow: Prosveshchenie. 382 p. (In Russian)
Flint V.E., Chugunov Yu.D., Smirin V.M. 1970. Mammals of the USSR. Moscow: Mysl. 437 p. (In Russian)
Koroljeva IE, Vilchevskaya EV, Ruhovich DI. 2003. Digital Arable Land Map. Laboratory of Soil Information of the Dokuchaev Soil Institute, Moscow, Russia [Based on: Yanvareva LF. (ed.), Martynjuk KN., Kisileva NM. 1989. Map of Land Use, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.].
Kostenko V.A. 1976. Rules of biotypical allocation and distribution of rodents in the Far East of the USSR. In: Bromlei G.F., Kostenko V.A., editors. Terrestrial Mammals of the Far East. Proceedings of Biologo-pochvennogo in-ta Dalnevostochnogo nauchnogo tsentra AN SSSR. Vladivostok: DVNTS AN SSSR. V. 37(140): 3-62 (In Russian)
Pavlinov I.Ya., Kruskop S.V., Varshavskii A.A., Borisenko A.V. 2002. Terrestrial animals of Russia. Manual-Identification book. Moscow: KMK. 298 p. (In Russian)

Right and copyright:

All rights reserved.
Copyright 2004 © F.A. Karlik & M.I. Saulich