10.5061/DRYAD.80GB5MKR1
Dittel, Jacob
0000-0001-8170-4162
University of North Alabama
Vander Wall, Stephen
University of Nevada Reno
The geographic distribution of rodent granivory and cheek pouches across
North America
Dryad
dataset
2021
Biogeography
2022-06-04T00:00:00Z
2022-06-04T00:00:00Z
en
https://www.iucnredlist.org
https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12502
12473 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Seeds are an important food resource for many rodents. One of the
specializations that many granivorous rodents exhibit to increase their
efficiency in harvesting seeds is cheek pouches. However, many rodent
species lack cheek pouches. We propose that the presence or absence of
cheek pouches is related to seed size and the productivity of the habitat
where those rodents reside. Location North America – United States and
Canada. Taxon Granivorous rodents. We divided granivorous rodents into
those species with and without cheek pouches. We then compiled a list of
plant species (n = 389) that are known or suspected to be dispersed by
these rodents via scatter hoarding the seeds in soil and compared the
richness distributions of small (≤10 mm) and large seeds (>10 mm)
to the distributions of rodents with and without cheek pouches. Large
seeds are generally too large to fit into cheek pouches so they are
usually carried one at a time with the incisors. Most rodents with cheek
pouches live in the arid southwestern North America, whereas most rodents
that lack cheek pouches live in the mesic southeastern North America. The
richness distribution of rodents with cheek pouches was more similar to
the richness distribution of small seeds, and the richness distribution of
rodents that lack cheek pouches was more similar to the richness
distribution of large seeds (nuts), although details of these
distributions differed significantly. The body mass of rodents with cheek
pouches (mean = 59.5 g) was significantly less than the body mass of
rodents that lack cheek pouches (592.6 g). Large rodents that lack cheek
pouches live mostly in the more productive southeastern portion of North
America where there are many trees that produce large nuts. Small rodent
with cheek pouches live mostly in the less productive southwestern portion
of North America where there are many shrubs, forbs, and grasses that
produce small seeds.
Data was enumerated by using program R to count the number of overlapping
animal and plant species across 197 sites in the United States and Canada.
Unmanipulated data can be found from the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN 2019) and Vander Wall and Moore 2016. IUCN.
(2019). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Version 2019-6.2.
https://www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on January 17th, 2020. Vander
Wall, S. B. & Moore, C.M. (2016). Interaction diversity of North
American seed-dispersal mutualisms. Global Ecology and Biogeography 25,
1377-1386.