Abstract
Geographical variation in morphometric characters in heteromyid rodents has often correlated with climate gradients. Here, we used the long-term database of rodents trapped in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, USA to test whether significant annual changes in external morphometric characters are observed in a region with large variations in temperature and precipitation. We looked at the relationships between multiple temperature and precipitation variables and a number of morphological traits (body mass, body, tail, hind leg, and ear length) for two heteromyid rodents, Dipodomys merriami and Perognathus flavescens. Because these rodents can live multiple years in the wild, the climate variables for the year of the capture and the previous 2 years were included in the analyses. Using multiple linear regressions, we found that all of our morphometric traits, with the exception of tail length in D. merriami, had a significant relationship with one or more of the climate variables used. Our results demonstrate that effects of climate change on morphological traits occur over short periods, even in noninsular mammal populations. It is unclear, though, whether these changes are the result of morphological plasticity or natural selection.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Sevilleta NWR staff, both present and past, for permission to use their Database, Dr. Michael Mares for useful comments and, of course, all those who did the actual hard work of collecting the data for the Sevilleta Database. We would also like thank our anonymous reviewers for constructive and helpful comments and suggestions.
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Wolf, M., Friggens, M. & Salazar-Bravo, J. Does weather shape rodents? Climate related changes in morphology of two heteromyid species. Naturwissenschaften 96, 93–101 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0456-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0456-y