Evol Ecol Res 15: 933-946 (2013) Full PDF if your library subscribes.
Trophic niche divergence reduces survival in an omnivorous rodent
Pei-Jen L. Shaner1, Sheng-Hai Wu2, Linhua Ke1 and Shuh-Ji Kao3
1Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City, Taiwan and 3Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Correspondence: P.-J.L. Shaner, Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, 88 Tingzhou Road, Sec. 4, Taipei 11677, Taiwan.
e-mail: pshaner@ntnu.edu.twABSTRACT
Hypothesis: Individuals that diverge from their population’s mean trophic niche suffer reduced survival.
Organism: The Taiwan field mouse, Apodemus semotus, a common, small, omnivorous rodent.
Field site: Pinus–Alnus–Quercus forest in central Taiwan (121°18′E, 24°21′N).
Methods: We used capture–recapture data to measure the survival of individual Apodemus semotus. We measured individual trophic niches using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values obtained from samples of the rodents’ hair. We used stepwise logistic regression to evaluate whether an individual’s survival depended on the divergence of its trophic niche from the population mean. We controlled for the potentially confounding effects of resource abundance with dry weights of seeds and arthropods collected in seed traps and pitfall traps.
Conclusions: The probability of survival declined with increasing niche divergence from the population mean. Stabilizing selection in this population of Apodemus semotus is thus acting to conserve niche width and location.
Keywords: Apodemus semotus, trophic niche, stabilizing selection, stable isotopes.
DOWNLOAD A FREE, FULL PDF COPY
IF you are connected using the IP of a subscribing institution (library, laboratory, etc.)
or through its VPN.
© 2013 Pei-Jen L. Shaner. All EER articles are copyrighted by their authors. All authors endorse, permit and license Evolutionary Ecology Ltd. to grant its subscribing institutions/libraries the copying privileges specified below without additional consideration or payment to them or to Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. These endorsements, in writing, are on file in the office of Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. Consult authors for permission to use any portion of their work in derivative works, compilations or to distribute their work in any commercial manner.
Subscribing institutions/libraries may grant individuals the privilege of making a single copy of an EER article for non-commercial educational or non-commercial research purposes. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also use articles for non-commercial educational purposes by making any number of copies for course packs or course reserve collections. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also loan single copies of articles to non-commercial libraries for educational purposes.
All copies of abstracts and articles must preserve their copyright notice without modification.