Chiseling Away at the Dogma of Dietary Specialization in Dipodomys Microps
School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work (co-first authors).
Diversity 2019, 11(6), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/d11060092
Received: 14 December 2018 / Revised: 3 June 2019 / Accepted: 11 June 2019 / Published: 14 June 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research)
Dipodomys microps, the chisel-toothed kangaroo rat, is heralded as one of few mammalian herbivores capable of dietary specialization. Throughout its range, the diet of D. microps is thought to consist primarily of Atriplex confertifolia (saltbush), a C4 plant, and sparing amounts of C3 plants. Using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen as natural diet tracers, we asked whether D. microps is an obligate specialist on saltbush. We analyzed hair samples of D. microps for isotopes from historic and recent museum specimens (N = 66). A subset of samples (N = 17) from 2017 that were associated with field notes on plant abundances were further evaluated to test how local saltbush abundance affects its inclusion in the diet of D. microps. Overall, we found that the chisel-toothed kangaroo rat facultatively specializes on saltbush and that the degree of specialization has varied over time and space. Moreover, saltbush abundance dictates its inclusion in the diet. Furthermore, roughly a quarter of the diet is comprised of insects, and over the past century, insects have become more prevalent and saltbush less prevalent in the diet. We suggest that environmental factors such as climate change and rangeland expansion have caused D. microps to include more C3 plants and insects.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
δ13C; Atriplex confertifolia; chisel-toothed kangaroo rat; diet shifts; Dipodomys microps; disturbance; environment; Mojave Desert; museum specimens; saltbush; specialization; stable isotopes
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Stephens, S.R.; Orr, T.J.; Dearing, M.D. Chiseling Away at the Dogma of Dietary Specialization in Dipodomys Microps. Diversity 2019, 11, 92. https://doi.org/10.3390/d11060092
AMA Style
Stephens SR, Orr TJ, Dearing MD. Chiseling Away at the Dogma of Dietary Specialization in Dipodomys Microps. Diversity. 2019; 11(6):92. https://doi.org/10.3390/d11060092
Chicago/Turabian StyleStephens, Sydney R.; Orr, Teri J.; Dearing, M. D. 2019. "Chiseling Away at the Dogma of Dietary Specialization in Dipodomys Microps" Diversity 11, no. 6: 92. https://doi.org/10.3390/d11060092
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit