Small mammals can be regarded as excellent subjects to test suppositions about population growth migration and reproduction, and, in particular, on how the complex physical structure of the environment affects the ecology of populations and communities. In other words, these small mammal studies can help formulate landscape ecological principles. This book summarizes a great deal of experimental work on the spatial ecology of small mammals. The field has entered an exciting stage with several new techniques (such as GIS and systems modeling) becoming available. Leading contributors describe and analyze the most well-known case studies and provide new insights into how landscape patterns and processes have had an impact on small mammals and how small mammals have, in turn, affected landscape structure and composition.

Small mammals can be regarded as excellent subjects to test suppositions about population growth migration and reproduction, and, in particular, on how the complex physical structure of the environment affects the ecology of populations and communities. In other words, these small mammal studies can help formulate landscape ecological principles. Leading contributors describe and analyze the most well-known case studies and provide new insights into how landscape patterns and processes have had an impact on small mammals and how small mammals have, in turn, affected landscape structure and composition.

1 Small Mammal Ecology: A Landscape Perspective.- Section 1 Patterns of Movement and Habitat Use.- 2 Behavioral Model Systems.- 3 Influence of Landscape Structure on Movement Patterns of Small Mammals.- 4 Patterns and Impacts of Movements at Different Scales in Small Mammals.- 5 Habitat Selection in Geographically Complex Landscapes.- Section 2 Population and Community Dynamics in Heterogeneous Landscapes.- 6 Experimental Analyses of Population Dynamics: Scaling Up to the Landscape.- 7 Spatial Demographic Synchrony in Fragmented Populations.- 8 EMS Studies at the Individual, Patch, and Landscape Scale: Designing Landscapes to Measure Scale-Specific Responses to Habitat Fragmentation.- 9 The Relative Importance of Small-Scale and Landscape-Level Heterogeneity in Structuring Small Mammal Distributions.- Section 3 Ecological Processes at Habitat Edges.- 10 Responses of Small Mammals to Habitat Edges.- 11 Interactions Between Meadow Voles and White-Footed Mice at Forest-Oldfield Edges: Competition and Net Effects on Tree Invasion of Oldfields.- 12 Effects of Vegetation Type and Adjacent Agricultural Matrix on Fencerow Use by Small Mammals: A Nonmanipulative Experiment.- Section 4 Experimental Designs and Parameter Estimators at the Landscape Level.- 13 Experimental Design at the Landscape Scale.- 14 Demographic Parameter Estimation for Experimental Landscape Studies on Small Mammal Populations.- Section 5 Synthesis.- 15 Synthesis: A Review of the Science and Prescriptions for the Future.