Long-Term Dynamics of Small-Mammal Communities in Anthropogenically Disturbed Territories in the South-East of West Siberia

The paper summarizes the unique 40-year experience (1978-2018) of studying the dynamics of communities caused by total deforestation and subsequent restoration in the Kuznetsk Basin of Kemerovo Region. The analysis of extensive material (more than 100,000 specimens) shows that small mammals are valid indicators of a variety of succession processes evoked by the transformation of habitats, which primarily involves the renewal of taiga forests on extensive clear felling. General long-term trends are superimposed on by natural cyclical fluctuations of population as well as by disturbances in the structure of communities, caused by weather and climatic anomalies, by rapid increases in population and changes in the spatial and ethological structure of individual species.