The Effect of Weather on the Winter Activity of Old-Field Rodents

Abstract

As a part of basic studies of ecological change on the AEC Savannah River Plant Area special attention has been given to the old field ecosystem by a faculty-student team of the University of Georgia. Seasonal and annual changes in the “standing crops” of major plant and animal groups have been followed. For sampling small mammals, extensive use has been made of a standard trapline technic originally developed by Calhoun (1948). The basic trapline unit consists of 20 stations with three traps per station set for three nights. We placed stations 25 feet apart so that small as well as large fields could be sampled (for larger fields more than one unit is often used).