Using stable isotopes to detect responses to environmental change in parapatric ctenomyid rodents

Abstract

Understanding how interspecific differences in a community play out in response to historical environmental changes provides a useful foundation for predicting the evolutionary and conservation outcomes of future changes in environmental conditions. Ecological studies have increasingly utilized stable isotopes to gain insights into the diets, and hence, the floristic composition that historical populations of mammals utilized. Here, we report on the use of stable isotope analyses of rodent teeth to explore the potential role that interspecific differences in response to past environmental changes have played in shaping observed differences in genetic structure between two parapatric species of ctenomyid rodents.