Environmental factors and population fluctuations of Akodon azarae (Muridae: Sigmodontinae) in central Argentina

VERÓNICA ANDREO; CECILIA PROVENSAL; MARCELO SCAVUZZO; MARIO LAMFRI; JAIME POLOP

Wiley-Blackwell

Año: 2009 vol. 34 p. 132 - 132

The aim of this work was to explore the relationship between population density of Akodon azarae (Muridae: Sigmodontinae) and climatic and environmental variables, and determine which of them are associated to within and among-year changes in rodent abundance in agro-ecosystems from south Córdoba, Argentina. The study was carried out in a rural area of central Argentina, from 1983 to 2003. Density was estimated as a relative density index (RDI). Temperature, precipitation and humidity were obtained from records of the National University of Rio Cuarto. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature were recorded from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1983?1998) and Landsat (1998?2003) imagery data sets.We performed simple correlations, multiple regressions and distributed lag analysis. Direct association of climatic and environmental variables with RDI was in general, low. The amount of variability in seasonal changes in density explained