Ecology and Management of Wetland Rodent Populations

Wetland rodent communities, encompassing key species such as muskrats, water voles and other semiaquatic and terrestrial rodents, play pivotal roles in shaping habitat structure and function through activities such as burrowing, dam building and selective herbivory. These ecosystem engineers influence hydrological regimes, sediment dynamics and plant community composition, while their population dynamics respond sensitively to fluctuations in water levels, climate extremes and land-use change. Management objectives must balance the ecological benefits of biodiversity maintenance and natural water regulation against the risks of infrastructure damage, invasive spread and agricultural loss. Strategies therefore integrate rigorous population monitoring, habitat restoration and adaptive control measures. Across diverse regions—from North American marshes and European waterways to Australian coastal wetlands—innovations in statistical modelling, remote sensing and geoecological assessment are enhancing predictions of rodent distribution under scenarios of climate change and informing policies on trapping, translocation and habitat management. The global significance of wetland rodents lies in their dual status as vital ecosystem engineers and as species requiring carefully calibrated management to safeguard both human interests and wetland biodiversity.

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Ecology and Management of Wetland Rodent Populations publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in ecology and management of wetland rodent populations across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Ecosystem engineer: A species that alters physical habitat structure and resource availability through its activities.

Occupancy modelling: A statistical framework used to estimate the probability of species presence while accounting for imperfect detection.

Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE): The number of individuals captured per standardized amount of effort, used as an index of population abundance.

Translocation: The deliberate movement of organisms from one location to another to establish, reestablish or bolster populations.

Orthoimagery: Aerial photographs geometrically corrected to uniform scale, used for accurate mapping and remote wildlife surveys.

References

1. The use of orthoimagery and stereoscopic aerial imagery to identify muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) houses. Wildlife Society Bulletin (2024).
2. A Large‐Scale Experiment to Evaluate Control of Invasive Muskrats. Wildlife Society Bulletin (2020).
3. Assessing translocation effects on the spatial ecology and survival of muskrats Ondatra zibethicus. Wildlife Biology (2021).