Common Small Mammals Monitoring Programme - SEMICE

The program is aimed at monitoring common small mammal species with high detectability to compute reliable estimates of popula- tion change

The SEMICE programme was launched in 2008, and is aimed at obtaining indices of relative abundance of highly detectable common small mammal species using live-trapping plots; relatively small 6 × 6 trapping grids with commercial traps (Sherman and Longworth) are set in the field for three consecutive nights twice a year (spring/summer and autumn). Individuals captured are marked with permanent ear/tags in rodents and with fur clips in the case of shrews. Starting with 20 stations, the network has increased thoroughout the years, given the support of Catalan/Spanish Administrations, field professionals, and volunteers, reaching a hundred of active stations in 2021. Indices of relative abundance are the base of our monitoring objectives, and these values are translated into population trends with adequate time-series analyses. Combining abundance with environmental data (climate, land-use, predators, etc.) will help understanding population trends of small mammal species in the light of global change.

Team members
  • imgIgnasi TorreScientific Coordinator of the SEMICE project
  • imgLídia FreixasCoordinator of the Monitoring Programs SEMICE and the Dormouse Project
  • imgMarc VilellaSupport Technician of the SEMICE project

Monitoring programmes

As biodiversity is becoming increasingly threatened by global change, robust methods for measuring current trends of wild faunal populations are urgently needed. Monitoring programmes aimed at recording biodiversity changes over time have become indispensable tools for biodiversity conservation. The research group BiBio coordinates four monitoring programmes based on citizen science, covering a wide range of taxa, from butterflies to small mammals and bats. Data from these monitoring programmes forms the core of the BiBio research group.

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Catalan Butterfly Monitoring Scheme

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Bat Monitoring Programme

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Common Small Mammals Monitoring Programme

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Dormouse project

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