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A new method for assessing food quality in common vole (Microtus arvalis) populations

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Abstract

Food quality is an important factor influencing the demography of small rodents. While there have been numerous studies on food supply during small mammal population cycles, studies on quality of food consumed are rare due to technical difficulties in estimating nitrogen in small samples, such as stomachs or faeces. In this study, we use a new method, near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS), for estimating nitrogenous compounds (NC) in stomachs of common voles (Microtus arvalis). Samples were taken from two populations over two 3-year periods. Vegetation cover (managed alfalfa/set-aside field), and thus also food supply, differed significantly between the two periods. In analysing the effects of food supply and individual attributes (i.e. sex, body size, reproduction) on NC in stomachs, we were able to show that nitrogen varied uniformly and that sex, body size and season had no effect. No significant difference in NC intake was observed between the two study periods, despite individuals being smaller and the population less abundant during the second period. During the peak densities, however, reproducing females consumed food with a significantly higher level of nitrogen than all other individuals. Our results indicate that changes in food supply do not affect the overall quality of food consumed but that maintenance of nutritional quality may require higher energetic release, which may affect body condition. We confirm that NIRS represents a useful new tool opening new possibilities in small-mammal ecology studies.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Project 521/08/P529 of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (Czech Science Foundation). We would like to thank Jiri Kamler for his efficient help with nitrogen analysis. All work in this study complied with the Council Directive 86/609/EEC—regulations on the experimental use of animals. In addition, the approval for all field experiments within this project was obtained from the ethical committee of the Academy of Sciences. We thank Dr. Kevin Roche for improving the English language and for commenting the earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kvetná 8, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic

    Eva Janova, Josef Bryja & Marta Heroldova

  2. Institute of Animal Genetics, Veterinary and Pharmaceutical University, Palackého 1-3, 612 42, Brno, Czech Republic

    Eva Janova

  3. CEITEC-VFU, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Palackého tr. 1-3, 612 42, Brno, Czech Republic

    Eva Janova

  4. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlárská 2, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    Josef Bryja

  5. Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture, Hroznová 2, 656 06, Brno, Czech Republic

    David Cizmar

  6. Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 3, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Ladislav Cepelka

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  1. Eva Janova
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  4. Ladislav Cepelka
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Correspondence to Eva Janova.

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Communicated by C. Gortázar

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Janova, E., Bryja, J., Cizmar, D. et al. A new method for assessing food quality in common vole (Microtus arvalis) populations. Eur J Wildl Res 61, 57–62 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-014-0873-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-014-0873-5

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