The effects of climate change on Merriam's kangaroo rat, Dipodomys merriami

We examined the relationship between body size of Dipodomys merriami and sp ecific climate variables for the years 1989 through 1996 at the Sevilleta L TER Station. Earlier work demonstrated a 2-3 degreesC increase in both summ er and winter temperatures at Sevilleta over this time period. In that stud y, Neotoma albigula's adult mean body mass decreased as temperature increas ed. Dipodomys merriami's adult mean body mass differed significantly among years for both sexes but there was no trend across years. There was also no relationship to climate variables. Abundance showed a positive relationshi p with one axis of a PCA of the correlated climate variables. (C) 2001 Acad emic Press.