Voles, predators and zoonoses

Description

We monitor vole and lemming dynamics, and are interested in their patterns, causes, and impacts. Our focus is on long-term changes in numbers of small rodents and their dependence on landscape and climate changes, and on the long-term effects of declining and low vole numbers on predators and rodent-borne zoonoses. We also study landscape ecology of the Golden eagle and effects of wind power exploitation on this species.

Key words: small rodents, lemmings, mice, population dynamics, demography, landscape ecology, predation, Tengmalm’s owl, Puumala virus, Golden eagle.


Projects

• Environmental monitoring of small rodents
• Dynamics of voles, predators, and zoonotic pathogens in a climate gradient
• Long-term decline of the grey-sided vole (Myodes rufocanus) in relation to landscape structure
• Monitoring of rodent- and tick-borne zoonotic pathogens
• Spatiotemporal variation of Puumala hantavirus among bank voles (Myodes glareolus) and in relation to dynamics of the voles and a main predator
• Interactions between small rodents and the fox tapeworm (Echinococcus multilocularis) in Sweden
• The Golden eagle and forestry: reproduction and habitat requirements at nest site and landscape scales
• Effects of wind power exploitation on habitat use and reproductive success of the Golden eagle
  

Photo: Bent Christensen