Poblete Yanina, Gutiérrez Víctor, Cid Valeska, Newsome Seth D, Sabat Pablo, Vasquez Rodrigo A
Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Las Palmeras 3425, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile.
Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad de las Américas, Av. Manuel Montt 948, Providencia, Santiago, Chile.
Oecologia. 2018 Apr;186(4):931-938. doi: 10.1007/s00442-018-4076-8. Epub 2018 Jan 31.
Populations of the same species can vary substantially in their behavioral and morphometric traits when they are subject to different environmental pressures, which may lead to the development of different adaptive strategies. We quantified variation in exploratory behavior and morphometric traits among two rufous-collared sparrow populations that occur at low and high elevations in central Chile. Moreover, we used census and δH values of feather and blood to evaluate migration. We found that individual sparrows inhabiting high elevations were larger and showed more intense exploratory behavior in comparison with those that were captured at lower elevation. Moreover, we observed a steady decline in sparrow abundance during the winter and similar δH values for blood collected in the winter and summer at this site, which were significantly lower than blood δH values observed at low elevation. This pattern suggests that individuals do not move long distances during winter, and likely they remain at similar elevations in refuge habitats. As predicted, our results support the existent of different adaptive strategies among populations of the same species, and suggest that the combination of behavioral, morphometric, and stable isotope data is a novel and robust integrative approach to assess differences in adaptation across environmental gradients.
当同一物种的种群受到不同的环境压力时，它们的行为和形态特征可能会有很大差异，这可能导致不同适应策略的形成。我们量化了智利中部低海拔和高海拔地区的两个棕颈雀鹀种群在探索行为和形态特征方面的差异。此外，我们利用普查以及羽毛和血液的δH值来评估迁徙情况。我们发现，与在较低海拔捕获的个体相比，栖息在高海拔地区的个体麻雀体型更大，探索行为也更强烈。此外，我们观察到冬季麻雀数量稳步下降，且该地点冬季和夏季采集的血液δH值相似，这些值显著低于在低海拔地区观察到的血液δH值。这种模式表明，个体在冬季不会进行长距离迁徙，它们可能留在避难栖息地的相似海拔高度。正如预期的那样，我们的结果支持同一物种的种群之间存在不同的适应策略，并表明行为、形态和稳定同位素数据的结合是一种新颖且强大的综合方法，用于评估跨环境梯度的适应差异。
