Scripts and datasets from : Broadleaved hedgerows as complementary habitats for small mammals in pine plantation forest landscapes

ARTICLE ABSTRACT: The global decline of natural forests is accompanied by the expansion of commercial tree plantations, which generally support lower biodiversity, particularly when monospecific and intensively managed. Broadleaved hedgerows have been proposed as a nature-based solution to enhance biodiversity within conifer-dominated plantation landscapes, but their effects on small mammal communities remain largely unquantified. We assessed small mammal communities across habitat types within a native pine plantation-dominated landscape in southwestern France. Using a temporal survey, we compared species richness and abundance among pine plantation edges, broadleaved hedgerows embedded within plantations and broadleaved forests. We further tested whether hedgerow characteristics influenced dominant species and whether seasonal and interannual demographic dynamics modified habitat-related patterns. Pine plantation edges and broadleaved hedgerows supported lower species richness than broadleaved forests and were dominated by two habitat generalists, Apodemus sylvaticus and Crocidura russula. This pattern was driven by the near absence of the forest-specialist Clethrionomys glareolus. Hedgerows did not increase species richness relative to plantations edges, but shifted community composition by favoring A. sylvaticus, while supporting fewer C. russula. Greater hedgerow structural and compositional complexity benefited to A. sylvaticus abundance, while seasonal and interannual rodent population dynamics modulated habitat-related differences. Our results indicate that pine plantations can act as environmental filters, excluding forest-specialist small mammals, while broadleaved hedgerows provide only limited support for the recovery of forest-specialist communities. Enhancing the ecological value of plantation-dominated landscapes will therefore require broadleaved hedgerows to be embedded within well-connected networks of high-quality broadleaved habitats.