Data for: Effects of habitat management on rodent diversity, abundance, and virus infection dynamics

As anthropogenic factors continue to degrade natural areas, habitat
management is needed to restore and maintain biodiversity. However, the
impacts of different habitat management regimes on ecosystems have largely
focused on vegetation analyses, with limited evaluation of downstream
effects on wildlife. We compared the effects of grassland management
regimes (prescribed burning, cutting/haying, or no active management) on
rodent communities and the viruses they hosted. Rodents were trapped in 13
existing grassland sites in Northwest Arkansas, USA during 2020 and 2021.
Rodent blood samples were screened for antibodies against three common
rodent-borne virus groups: orthohantaviruses, arenaviruses, and
orthopoxviruses. We captured 616 rodents across 5953 trap nights. Burned
and unmanaged sites had similarly high abundance and diversity, but burned
sites had a higher proportion of grassland species than unmanaged sites;
cut sites had the highest proportion of grassland species but the lowest
rodent abundance and diversity. A total of 38 rodents were seropositive
for one of the three virus groups (34 orthohantavirus, three arenavirus,
and one orthopoxvirus). Thirty-six seropositive individuals were found in
burned sites, and two orthohantavirus-seropositive individuals were found
in cut sites. Cotton rats and prairie voles, two grassland species,
accounted for 97% of the rodents seropositive for orthohantavirus. Our
study indicates that prescribed burns lead to a diverse and abundant
community of grassland rodent species when compared to other management
regimes; as keystone taxa, these results also have important implications
for many other species in food webs. Higher prevalence of antibodies
against rodent-borne viruses in burned prairies shows an unexpected
consequence likely resulting from robust host population densities
supported by the increased habitat quality of these sites. Ultimately,
these results provide empirical evidence that can inform grassland
restoration and ongoing management strategies.