Leave cut vegetation in field to provide cover

Overall effectiveness category Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)
Number of studies: 1
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How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

3%
Certainty

30%
Harms

0%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Leaving cut vegetation in a field, either following cutting or by adding hay from elsewhere, may increase ground-level shelter available to small mammals.

Study locations

Key messages

One study evaluated the effects on mammals of leaving cut vegetation in field to provide cover. This study was in the USA

KEY COMMUNITY RESPONSE (0 STUDIES)

POPULATION RESPONSE (1 STUDY)

Abundance (1 study): A controlled, before-and-after study in the USA found that increasing cover, by adding cut vegetation (hay), did not increase rodent abundance.

BEHAVIOUR (0 STUDIES)

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A controlled, before-and-after study in 1983–1984 on a prairie grassland in Kansas, USA (Kotler et al. 1988) found that increasing cover, by adding cut vegetation (hay), did not increase rodent abundance. Rodent numbers were not significantly different after hay addition (19–28/census) compared to before hay addition (10–25/census). Rodent abundances in plots with no added hay likewise did not differ significantly over the same time periods (after: 14–45/census; before: 9–36/census). Three plots, 0.81 ha each, were established on brome grass Bromus inermns and prairie vegetation. One had 16 cm depth of hay added in January 1984. Two were left unmanaged. Small mammals were sampled using 100 Longworth live traps/plot. Trapping occurred over two nights, biweekly, from 12 weeks before hay addition (October 1983) until 26 weeks after hay addition (August 1984).
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Kotler B.P., Gaines M.S. & Danielson B.J. (1988) The effects of vegetative cover on the community structure of prairie rodents. Acta Theriologica, 33, 379-391.

Please cite as:

Littlewood, N.A., Rocha, R., Smith, R.K., Martin, P.A., Lockhart, S.L., Schoonover, R.F., Wilman, E., Bladon, A.J., Sainsbury, K.A., Pimm S. and Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Terrestrial Mammal Conservation: Global Evidence for the Effects of Interventions for terrestrial mammals excluding bats and primates. Synopses of Conservation Evidence Series. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Terrestrial Mammal Conservation

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