Incisor microwear of Arctic rodents as a proxy for microhabitat preference.

• Published in: Mammalian Biology
• Main Authors: Ungar, Peter S., Saylor, Lindsay, Sokolov, Aleksandr A., Sokolova, Natalia A., Gilg, Olivier, Montuire, Sophie, Royer, Aurélien
• Other Authors: Department of Anthropology University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS), Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249) (LCE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC), Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique, École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), Biogéosciences UMR 6282 (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Grant of Russian Foundation for Basic Research No: 18-05-60261, by the Russian Center of Development of the Arctic, “Yamal-LNG” company and Government of the Yamal Nenets Autonomous District, of University of Arkansas Honors College, and support from US National Science Foundation Award No: 1927793.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Siberian lemming; Narrow-headed vole; Tooth wear; Environment; Yamal Peninsula; Habitats; Tundra; Arctic; Russia; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Lemmus sibiricus
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03388427; https://hal.science/hal-03388427/document; https://hal.science/hal-03388427/file/temp.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00138-x

International audience Changing environmental conditions in the Arctic make it important to document and understand habitat preferences and flexibility of vulnerable high-latitude mammals. Indirect proxies are especially useful for elusive species, such as rodents. This study explores incisor microwear as an indicator of variation in behavior and microhabitat use in Siberian lemmings (Lemmus sibiricus) and narrow-headed voles (Lasiopodomys gregalis) from the Yamal Peninsula, Russia. Fifty-nine individuals were sampled at four sites along a latitudinal gradient from forest-tundra ecotone to high-Arctic tundra. Lemmings are present at the northernmost site, voles at the southernmost site, and both species at the middle two. Lemmus sibiricus prefers wet, mossy lowland, whereas La. gregalis favors drier thickets and more open microhabitats and burrows underground. Feature-based analyses indicate higher densities of features and more uniformly oriented striations for voles than lemmings at sites with both species. The species also differ significantly in microwear texture attributes suggesting larger features for lemmings, and smaller ones, but more of them, for voles. While no texture differences were found between sites within species, voles from sites with open tundra have higher striation densities than those from the forest-tundra ecotone. Furthermore, lemmings from open tundra sites have higher striation densities than those from the water-saturated, moss-covered northernmost site. While microhabitat preferences and burrowing by voles likely contribute to differences between species, variation within seems to reflect habitat variation given differences in abrasive loads between sites. This suggests that incisor microwear patterning can be used to track microhabitat differences among Arctic rodent populations.