Three-year periodicity in historical raptor-persecution data: an indication of vole cycles?

2011 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 155 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Lõhmus
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahdi Aminikhah ◽  
Jukka T. Forsman ◽  
Esa Koskela ◽  
Tapio Mappes ◽  
Jussi Sane ◽  
...  

AbstractZoonotic diseases, caused by pathogens transmitted between other vertebrate animals and humans, pose a major risk to human health. Rodents are important reservoir hosts for many zoonotic pathogens, and rodent population dynamics affect the infection dynamics of rodent-borne diseases, such as diseases caused by hantaviruses. However, the role of rodent population dynamics in determining the infection dynamics of rodent-associated tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme borreliosis (LB), caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato bacteria, have gained limited attention in Northern Europe, despite the multiannual abundance fluctuations, the so-called vole cycles, that characterise rodent population dynamics in the region. Here, we quantify the associations between rodent abundance and LB human cases and Puumala Orthohantavirus (PUUV) infections by using two time series (25-year and 9-year) in Finland. Both bank vole (Myodes glareolus) abundance as well as LB and PUUV infection incidence in humans showed approximately 3-year cycles. Without vector transmitted PUUV infections followed the bank vole host abundance fluctuations with two-month time lag, whereas tick-transmitted LB was associated with bank vole abundance ca. 12 and 24 months earlier. However, the strength of association between LB incidence and bank vole abundance ca. 12 months before varied over the study years. This study highlights that the human risk to acquire rodent-borne pathogens, as well as rodent-associated tick-borne pathogens is associated with the vole cycles in Northern Fennoscandia, yet with complex time lags.


2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (9) ◽  
pp. 1149-1160 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.C. Winternitz ◽  
M.J. Yabsley ◽  
S.M. Altizer

Parasites can both influence and be affected by host population dynamics, and a growing number of case studies support a role for parasites in causing or amplifying host population cycles. In this study, we examined individual and population predictors of gastrointestinal parasitism on wild cyclic montane voles ( Microtus montanus (Peale, 1848)) to determine if evidence was consistent with theory implicating parasites in population cycles. We sampled three sites in central Colorado for the duration of a multiannual cycle and recorded the prevalence and intensity of directly transmitted Eimeria Schneider, 1875 and indirectly transmitted cestodes from a total of 267 voles. We found significant associations between host infection status, individual traits (sex, age, and reproductive status) and population variables (site, trapping period, and population density), including a positive association between host density and cestode prevalence, and a negative association between host density and Eimeria prevalence. Both cestode and Eimeria intensity correlated positively with host age, reproductive status, and population density, but neither parasite was associated with poorer host condition. Our findings suggest that parasites are common in this natural host, but determining their potential to influence montane vole cycles requires future experimental studies and long-term monitoring to determine the fitness consequences of infection and the impact of parasite removal on host dynamics.


Oikos ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik R. Lindström ◽  
Birger Hörnfeldt ◽  
Erik R. Lindstrom ◽  
Birger Hornfeldt
Keyword(s):  

1999 ◽  
Vol 154 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Hansen ◽  
Nils C. Stenseth ◽  
Heikki Henttonen

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Lambin ◽  
Isla M Graham

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 340-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J. Krebs
Keyword(s):  

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Norrdahl ◽  
Erkki Korpimäki
Keyword(s):  

1986 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 2871-2872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard S. Ostfeld ◽  
Robert H. Tamarin

We examined the assertion that seasonal fluctuations in food availability are necessary for vole cycles to take place by studying the dynamics of a California vole (Microtus californicus) population inhabiting a relatively aseasonal environment. That population was one of the most stable (noncyclic) microtine populations yet described. Reproduction was comparatively aseasonal but appeared to be suppressed at high population density. We suggest that the role of seasonality in vole population fluctuations deserves further study.


1984 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 1796-1804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Tamarin ◽  
Lawrence M. Reich ◽  
Carol A. Moyer

To test the idea that dispersal is necessary for cycling and to develop an enclosure that would permit vole population cycling, we partially and fully fenced grids that included woodland areas (dispersal sinks) that were continually trapped out. We studied three populations of the meadow vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus, in Massachusetts from 1978 to 1982. The control population and both fenced populations exhibited virtually identical demographic trends, which encompassed a vole cycle. Analysis of demographic parameters suggested that the major effect of the fence was to increase survival within. We attributed this increased survival to reduced dispersal because a dispersal sink attracted only 98 dispersers throughout the study, We suggest that there is a continuum of individual thresholds to disperse with only a very few animals motivated enough to enter a woodland dispersal sink.


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