Prairie habitats in North America have been reduced to 1% of their original area.  As a result, many of the large-scale natural processes that maintained prairie habitat and prairie mammal communities no longer function.  Prairies now require a great deal of active management to simulate formerly natural processes.  The impact of these management practices on small mammals is not well known.  Through this project we intend to examine small mammal communities on several wildlife management areas, Nature Conservancy sites, and Concordia College's Long Lake restored prairie.  The project will use live trapping to examine how small mammal communities (abundance and diversity) are affected by prescribed burns and other prairie management techniques (eg., grazing and planting).  We also intend to look at the effect of invasive reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) on small mammals.   Reed canarygrass has been shown to be toxic to both sheep and voles.  We will be investigating whether reed canarygrass functions as cover and whether its presence has a positive or negative impact on mammal abundance and biodiversity.  Our goal is to collect data that will allow us to better understand how management techniques function in maintaining small mammal diversity and abundance and how invasive reed canary grass impacts the mammal community.

            Additionally, we will be adding to knowledge about the small mammal biodiversity of the region.  We will be looking specifically for rare species, such as the grasshopper mouse and prairie vole, on the sites.  To differentiate between the extremely similar white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) and deer mouse (P. maniculatus), we will be using cellulose acetate electrophoresis of collected salivary amylase samples to definitively identify which species is/are present.  Traditionally, body measurements are used to differentiate these two species, but these measurements are not reliable and overlap substantially.  The deer mouse has been undergoing precipitous decline in neighboring states, and we want to document its occurrence and abundance.