Natural History of the Desert Woodrat, Neotoma lepida

Stones, Robert C.; Hayward, C. Lynn

doi:10.2307/2423539

Cited by 45 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Given an adequate reference collection, more than 60% of the fossil taxa in a midden can be identified to the species level. Packrats are comprehensive collectors of -5vegetation within their limited (generally less than 30 m; Stones and Hayward 1968;Bleich and Schwartz 1975) home range. Modern middens invariably contain all the plants that are common at a site as well as most of the uncommon and rare species.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The presettlement vegetation of the California desert /

Spaulding¹

1980

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The presettlement vegetation of the California desert /

Spaulding¹

1980

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“…Individuals that do not respond quickly enough to an encounter with a novel PSM, as a result of either competition or dispersal events, may have reduced chances of dispersal, migration, and survival. Desert woodrats occur in pinyon-juniper woodlands (Durrant 1952, Stones andHayward 1968) that are distributed in the Great Basin and as islands surrounded by desert scrub vegetation and chaparral across the American southwest (Vaughan 1982, Lamolino et al 1989). This habitat constitutes a strong barrier for terrestrial mammals usually restricted to forests (Brown 1978, Lamolino et al 1989).…”

Section: Ecological and Evolutionary Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpopulation Differences in Tolerance to Creosote Bush Resin in Desert Woodrats (Neotoma lepida)

Mangione¹,

Dearing²,

Karasov³

2000

Ecology

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Plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) can affect survival, reproduction, and distribution of herbivores. Individuals with a high capacity to tolerate PSMs will experience fewer and smaller adverse effects than less tolerant individuals. Theoretically, the capacity to tolerate PSMs can be acquired during development, modulated during adulthood, or genetically fixed. We studied tolerance to phenolic resin from creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) in two populations of desert woodrats as a first step in understanding phenotypic habituation and genetic adaptation of this species to creosote resin. One population was from Mojave desert habitat where woodrats eat creosote bush, and the other from the Great Basin desert, where creosote bush is not present and woodrats consume mainly juniper (Juniperus osteosperma). For Ͼ1 mo in the laboratory, woodrats from both populations were fed rabbit chow with increasing amounts of phenolic resin extracted from creosote bush until they lost body mass or showed any sign of sickness. Woodrats from the Mojave population maintained body mass at higher concentrations of resin and remained in the experiment longer. There were no differences between populations in food intake across all resin levels; however, maximum resin intake was 25% higher for the Mojave population. Food intake decreased with increasing resin intake. Glucuronic acid excretion in urine, one indicator of detoxification capacity, did not differ between populations. Water consumption increased with increased levels of creosote resin in the diet in woodrats from both populations. The results are consistent with the idea of differential tolerance to creosote bush phenolic resin in desert woodrat populations. Woodrats appear to be a promising natural system to study the developmental or genetic factors underlying vertebrate adaptation to plant secondary metabolites.

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“…These mountains are a southwestern continuance of the Wasatch Front or western arm of the Utah Rockies. Neotoma middens contain elaborately detailed samplings of plant communities within the rodents' limited collecting range (chiefly < 15 m, but up to 100m); this has been established by analysis of modern middens (Finley 1958, Wells 1976) and by trapping/release determinations of home range (Lindsdale and Tevis I 95 I, Raun I 966, Stones andHayward 1968, Bleich andSchwartz 1975). A fork to the southwest from Lost Peak leads to the Clover-Delamar Plateau (to 2400 m) with its important Wisconsinan Neotoma records at 1350-1525 m. The White Rocks are at a key junction where the axial route forks northeast or continues 100 km north past the Wilson Creeks (2820 m) to the massive Snake Range (4120 m); thence the route extends for another 100 km to its northeastern terminus at the Deep Creeks (3685 m).…”

Section: Dispersal Routesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…THE NEOTOMA METHOD: AN UPDATE Assemblages of diverse plant materials laid down by wood rats are excellently preserved for tens of thousands of years in caves and other rock shelters (Wells and Jorgensen 1964, Wells 1966, Wells and Berger 1967. Neotoma middens contain elaborately detailed samplings of plant communities within the rodents' limited collecting range (chiefly < 15 m, but up to 100m); this has been established by analysis of modern middens (Finley 1958, Wells 1976) and by trapping/release determinations of home range (Lindsdale and Tevis I 95 I, Raun I 966, Stones andHayward 1968, Bleich andSchwartz 1975). Dominant woody plants of greatest biomass (especially trees and large shrubs) bulk largest in the wood rats' massive and largely random accumulations of debris (including wood, rocks, bones, and other inedibles).…”

Section: Dispersal Routesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleobiogeography of Montane Islands in the Great Basin since the Last Glaciopluvial

Wells¹

1983

Ecological Monographs

192

173

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The existing warm (Larrea) deserts of the Southwest are Holocene expansions replacing late-Pleistocene, evergreen woodlands of low-statured junipers, pinyon pines, and live oaks; these woodlands have been isolated by complementary contraction to the slopes of higher mountains that rise like islands from the modern desert sea. Because pinyon-juniper woodland is now so widespread on the similar fault-block mountains of the Great Basin, even as far north as southern Idaho, it would seem reasonable to suppose that the modern "cold" (Artemisia, Atriplex) deserts were similarly wooded during the last glacial. However, conclusive Neotoma macrofossil evidence (45 14 Cdated assemblages are reported here) documents major latitudinal displacement of vegetation that precludes pinyon-juniper woodland in the northern and central Great Basin at that time. On the other hand, the entire Mohave Desert sector (south of =3rN) served as an extensive Pleistocene refugium for pinyon-juniper woodland, as documented by an additional 48 dated Neotoma deposits.During the Wisconsinan glacial in the southeastern corner of Oregon, at 42°27'N, there was a subarctic landscape of hyperboreal, prostrate shrublet-junipers (Juniperus horizontalis and J. communis) and widespread patterned ground, even at the near-basal elevation of 1460 m. The pleniglacial vegetation of the central Great Basin at 39°N in eastern Nevada and western Utah, was dominated by a regional subalpine forest of bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva), associated with minor but consistent boreal juniper (J. communis) down to 1660 m, close to the base level imposed by pluvial Lake Bonneville. Spruce has not been recorded below 1900 m during the last glacial. At a lower range of elevation (1350-1525 m), available south of the southeastern rim of the Bonneville basin at 37°30'N, Pinus longaeva was replaced by limber pine (P. flexilis), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga), and montane red cedar (J. scopulorum); existing woodland juniper (J. osteosperma) was lacking, but the subalpine J. communis was present at this local base level.Theory of island biogeography, as applied to ecological islands atop the high mountains of the Great Basin, is reexamined in the light of the drastic vegetational displacements documented in the detailed Quaternary macrofossil record. Species/area plots of montane-subalpine conifers presently distributed on 54 Great Basin mountaintops show an overall insular pattern that is especially well developed on the subset of 38 ecological islands east of I l6°W; the slope of z = 0.26 is close to the theoretical value for islands in equilibrium.All I I taxa of montane-subalpine conifers that penetrate the Great Basin deeply have their main distributions in the Rocky Mountains; only three wide-ranging species occur also in the Sierra Nevada. A long sundering trough in the western Great Basin parallels and isolates the Cascade-Sierran uplift with low-elevation barriers that impede migration, but in the eastern Great Basin there are high connecting divides to the western Rockies, es...

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Natural History of the Desert Woodrat, Neotoma lepida

Cited by 45 publications

References 5 publications

The presettlement vegetation of the California desert /

The presettlement vegetation of the California desert /

Interpopulation Differences in Tolerance to Creosote Bush Resin in Desert Woodrats (Neotoma lepida)

Paleobiogeography of Montane Islands in the Great Basin since the Last Glaciopluvial

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