DOI: 10.15468/ygzvjr
title: Rodent composition of urban and forested areas in Potsdam, Germany

description: The present dataset from Germany is encompassed in the European Biodiversa BioRodDis project (Managing BIOdiversity in forests and urban green spaces: Dilution and amplification effects on RODent microbiomes and rodent-borne DISeases. Project coordinator: Nathalie Charbonnel, Senior researcher (DR2, INRAE), nathalie.charbonnel@inrae.fr - https://www6.inrae.fr/biodiversa-bioroddis). The project comes with the purpose to explore on a large scale the relationship between biodiversity of rodents, rodent-borne diseases dynamics and differences over time in a changing climate and it includes data of small terrestrial mammals from temperate forests and urban parks from the following countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and Poland. The present dataset includes records of small mammals (Rodentia) occurrences trapped in urbanised and forested areas in northeast Germany in the district of Potsdam (Brandenburg). Samplings and data collection took place throughout three years and during a total of four seasons: winter 2020, spring 2021, autumn 2021 and spring 2022. The number of sampling sites varied between 2 and 4 per seasons, with two main sites (Germany EastA and Germany EastB) being permanent in each sampling season. These variations are mainly due to the impact of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic regulations (2020, 2021) on the organisation and the execution of fieldwork and to the exclusion subsequently of forested sites with very low density of animals (≤10 individuals: Germany EastC, Germany EastB). The two main sampling sites represent different levels of anthropisation. The site Germany EastA is around the Botanical Garden belonging to the University of Potsdam with a mixture of sealed and wooded areas and a constant human presence while the site Germany EastB is a forested sub-urbanised area outside of the city composed by mixed coniferous forests, meadows, crossed by a main road and with occasional human presence (hunters, foresters). All animals were live captured (as in Schirmer et al., 2019) using a combination of Ugglan and Longworth traps for a total of 100-150 traps, depending on site and year. Traps were placed in 4 to 6 lines with 25m distance, and each line was composed by a total of 25 traps placed with 10m distance from each other. Fieldwork actions generally started with 1-4 days of pre-baiting followed by 1-10 days of trapping, according to efficiency of trapping and subprojects included. The sites Germany EastC and Germany EastD were excluded from the last two seasons because of very low trapping success during the previous seasons. All the traps were controlled daily during early morning hours and were activated again in the evening, with animals spending not more than eight hours in the trap. Baiting mixture consisted of oat flakes and apples and all traps were equipped with insulating material, like hay or wood wool. Taxonomical identification was determined in the field at species level according to morphology and previously recorded species occurrences in the sampling area (Dolch, 1995). Molecular identification of Apodemus flavicollis and Microtus individuals that were subsequently dissected was performed by the CBGP (France) using CO1 sequencing for Microtus species following Pagès et al., 2010, and DNA fingerprinting (AP-PCR) for Apodemus species (Bugarski-Stanojević et al., 2013). Dissections and body measurements were performed following the protocols described in Herbreteau et al., 2011. At the end of all seasons, a total of 620 occurrences of rodents was recorded, belonging to two main families (Muridae, Cricetidae) and four different species (Apodemus flavicollis, Apodemus agrarius, Myodes glareolus and Microtus arvalis). Additionally, for a subset of individuals (n=264), body measurements like weight, body length, head width, tail length and hind foot length as well as sexual maturity data were recorded. Animals were captured in accordance with the applicable international and institutional guidelines for the use of animals in research. The trapping and collection of rodents was performed under the permission of “Landesamt für Arbeitsschutz, Verbraucherschutz und Gesundheit Brandenburg (LAVG)“ (no. 2347-A-16-1-2020 for procedure, LUGV_RW7-4744/41+5#243052/2015 and N1 0424 for trapping) and “Landesamt für Umwelt Brandenburg (LfU)” (no. LFU-N1-4744/97+17#194297/2020, for sites and species exemptions). This project was funded through the 2018-2019 BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivERsA3 ERA-Net COFUND programme, and coordinated by the German Science Foundation DFG (Germany). Citations: 1) Bugarski-Stanojević, V., Blagojević, J., Adnađević, T., Jovanović, V., & Vujošević, M. (2013). Identification of the sibling species Apodemus sylvaticus and Apodemus flavicollis (Rodentia, Muridae)—Comparison of molecular methods. Zoologischer Anzeiger - A Journal of Comparative Zoology, 252(4), 579–587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2012.11.004 2) Dolch, D. (1995). Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege in Brandenburg. 97. 3) Herbreteau, V., Jittapalapong, S., Rerkamnuaychoke, W., Chaval, Y., Cosson, J.-F., & Morand, S. (2011). Protocols for field and laboratory rodent studies. 56. 4) Pagès, M., Chaval, Y., Herbreteau, V., Waengsothorn, S., Cosson, J.-F., Hugot, J.-P., Morand, S., & Michaux, J. (2010). Revisiting the taxonomy of the Rattini tribe: A phylogeny-based delimitation of species boundaries. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 10(1), 184. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-10-184 5) Schirmer, A., Herde, A., Eccard, J. A., & Dammhahn, M. (2019). Individuals in space: Personality-dependent space use, movement and microhabitat use facilitate individual spatial niche specialization. Oecologia, 189(3), 647–660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-019-04365-5