How can we calculate the sample size for rodents for a study for one year? Are there any specific protocols to be followed for designing rodent sampling? How long should be the sampling interval before the next sampling the same area?
It depends a bit on your design, but the strongest way to do this to perform a power analysis, using any prior data that may be available to estimate effect sizes that you want to be able to detect and variabilities you are likely to see. There are some online power analysis calculators that work pretty well for this purpose.
As Hawkey says, the answers to these questions depend on your goals/questions, but also your study population (some rodents fluctuate greatly in population size which will affect your end sample size and in such cases, you won't be able to make a reliable power analysis).
Some papers describing often-used methods that might be relevant for you to check out is Myllymäki 1971 paper with the often used "small quadrat" design (Article Removal experiments on small quadrats as a means of rapid as...
), and a double-cross design for live-trapping Ehrich et al 2009 (Article Multi‐annual density fluctuations and habitat size enhance g...
) andArticle Predation and Interspecific Competition in Two Microtus Voles
Check out this as well:Article Density estimation for small mammals from livetrapping grids...
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