The Effect of Commercial Cuttings on Faunal Associations in Taiga Ecosystems: A Case Study of Small Mammals in Eastern Fennoscandia.

The general patterns of the effect of cuttings on the habitat structure, abundance, territorial distribution, and specific ecological features of 11 small mammalian species are analyzed based on long-term studies (1958-2013) covering the overall area of eastern Fennoscandia. The responses to concentrated cuttings common for most of the examined species include a decrease in total population size, transition to an- arrhythmic population dynamics with drastic short-term rises and deep long depressions, formation of unstable mosaic spatial distribution, disturbances of the reproduction rates, and a decrease in reproduction intensity.

Impact of industrial contamination on the populations of small forest rodents.

Investigations performed for monitoring the impact of industrial contamination from the Kostomuksha ore mining and processing enterprise (northern Karelia) on the populations of forest mouse-like rodents revealed increased embryonic mortality (three to four times higher compared to the control) in breeding females from the areas contaminated by nitrogen and sulfur oxides within the territory studied. The toxicants also influence other parameters of the population: abundance dynamics, ecological and spatial structure of the population, and reproduction rates. The results demonstrate that the population reactions of species may turn out to be more accurate and demonstrative when estimating the consequences of industrial contamination than the direct concentrations of a particular toxicant in the animal body.