Preliminary Study Of The Diversity Of Small Mammals In Wuyishan National Nature Reserve,Jiangxi Province

Systematical investigation and study of diversity patterns of small mammals in Jiangxi Wuyishan National Nature Reserve have not been carried out since the reserve was been promoted to a national level in 2002. We investigated the diversity of small mammals in different habitat types along altitude during July in 2014 to June in 2015 using living traps, pitfalls and net capture method. We chose 9 different habitat types according to the features of altitude and vegetation types to set traps. Nine different habitats types were farmland(I), Phyllostachys pubescens(II), Camellia sinensis(III), Tsuga chinensis(IV), evergreen broad-leaved forest(V), deciduous broad-leaved forest(VI), mid-mountain mossy dwarf forest(VII), Pinus taiwanensis(VIII), peak meadow area(IX). Different communities in these nine habitat types were recorded as community I to community IX, respectively.Total 397 small mammal individuals were captured, which belonged to 4 orders and 10 families. The species number was 21.The number of effective trapping day was 8046 and 376 ground-dwelling small mammals were used for further analysis. Two new distribution records had been added to the reserve named Eothenomys melanogaster and Crocidura dracula.Dominant species in habitat I was Apodemus agrarius. Dominant species changed to Niviventer in habitat II-VII and Eothenomys melanogaster in habitat VIII-IX. The correlation of relative density of small mammals in different habitat types and altitude was not significant(r=-0.316, df= 9, P= 0.0408) with the rise in altitude.Diversity index(1.7162), richness index(2.1141) was the highest, but dominance degree index(0.2283) was the lowest in Community III among these nine communities. Dominance index(0.8753) was the highest, but the diversity index(0.2538) and evenness index(0.1416) were the lowest in community I among nine communities.According to similarity index clustering results of small mammal communities in different habitat types, nine communities could be divided into three types: farmland type(community I), forest(community II, III, IV, V, VI, VII), meadow(community VIII and IX).There was a significant seasonal difference in the relative fatness of Niviventer fulvescens. The order was spring > summer > autumn > winter.The principal component analysis of different altitude height of habitat environment showed that herbaceous coverage, canopy density, tree height, number of fallen trees and diameter at breast height had higher contribution rates. Tree density and species diversity index correlated significantly(r= 0.710, df= 9, P= 0.032) and they were positively related to the change.