Urgoiti Jon, Muñoz Alberto, Espelta Josep Maria, Bonal Raúl
CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallés, Catalonia, Spain.
Department of Didactics of Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Education, University Complutense of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Integr Zool. 2018 May;13(3):307-318. doi: 10.1111/1749-4877.12301.
The function and conservation of many forest ecosystems depend on the distribution and diversity of the community of rodents that consume and disperse seeds. The habitat preferences and interactions are especially relevant in alpine systems where such granivorous rodents reach the southernmost limit of their distribution and are especially sensitive to global warming. We analyzed the community of granivorous rodents in the Pyrenees, one of the southernmost mountain ranges of Europe. Rodent species were identified by DNA with particular attention to the Apodemus species, which are prominent seed-dispersing rodents in Europe. We confirmed for the first time the presence of the yellow-necked mouse, Apodemus flavicollis, in central Pyrenees, a typical Eurosiberian species that reaches its southernmost distribution limit in this area. We also found the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, a related species more tolerant to Mediterranean environments. Both rodents were spatially segregated by altitude. A. sylvaticus was rare at high altitudes, which might cause the genetic differentiation between populations of the different valleys reported here. We also found other seed consumers like dormice, Elyomis quercinus, and voles, Myodes glareolus, with marked habitat preferences. We suggest that population isolation among valleys may increase the genetic diversity of rodents, like A. sylvaticus. We also highlight the potential threat that global warming may represent for species linked to high-altitude refuges at the southern edge of its distribution, like Apodemus flavicollis. Finally, we discuss how this threat may have a dimension in the conservation of alpine forests dispersed by these rodent populations.
许多森林生态系统的功能和保护取决于消耗和传播种子的啮齿动物群落的分布和多样性。栖息地偏好和相互作用在高山系统中尤为重要，在这些系统中，此类食谷啮齿动物分布到了其最南端，并且对全球变暖特别敏感。我们分析了欧洲最南端山脉之一的比利牛斯山脉中的食谷啮齿动物群落。通过DNA鉴定啮齿动物物种，特别关注姬鼠属物种，它们是欧洲重要的种子传播啮齿动物。我们首次证实了黄颈姬鼠（Apodemus flavicollis）在比利牛斯山脉中部的存在，这是一种典型的欧洲西伯利亚物种，在该地区达到其最南端的分布界限。我们还发现了林姬鼠（Apodemus sylvaticus），一种对地中海环境更具耐受性的相关物种。两种啮齿动物在海拔高度上存在空间隔离。林姬鼠在高海拔地区很罕见，这可能导致此处报道的不同山谷种群之间的遗传分化。我们还发现了其他种子消费者，如睡鼠（Elyomis quercinus）和田鼠（Myodes glareolus），它们具有明显的栖息地偏好。我们认为山谷之间的种群隔离可能会增加啮齿动物（如林姬鼠）的遗传多样性。我们还强调了全球变暖可能对分布边缘南部与高海拔避难所相关的物种（如黄颈姬鼠）构成的潜在威胁。最后，我们讨论了这种威胁在由这些啮齿动物种群传播种子的高山森林保护中可能具有的影响。
