Landscape and farm environmental structure determinants of small mammal assemblages in agroecosystems of central Argentina.

This article investigates how environmental and landscape characteristics at farm and surrounding scales influence the assemblage and population abundance of native and introduced small mammals on pig and dairy farms in Buenos Aires province, Argentina. The study found that greater environmental heterogeneity at the small landscape scale correlates with higher species richness, while assemblage composition varies with factors such as water bodies, cattle food, refugia, and vegetation cover at the farm scale, and woodland and crop mosaics at the landscape scale. Introduced commensal murids (e.g., *Mus musculus* and *Rattus rattus*) were more abundant near towns and in farms with higher vegetation cover, whereas native species like *Akodon azarae* and opossums showed associations with specific farm-scale habitat features and seasonal patterns. These findings highlight the importance of multiscale environmental determinants for developing ecologically based rodent management (EBRM) strategies in intensive livestock farming systems.