Abstract
To assess the stability of individual development of the pygmy wood mouse (Apodemus uralensis) in mountain areas with different ecogeographic conditions, the levels of fluctuating asymmetry in a series of skull phenes have been evaluated in ten samples from the Western and Central Caucasus. Attention has been focused on the influence of change in environmental conditions along the elevational gradient and the impact of some anthropogenic factors. An increase in the index of fluctuation asymmetry FAnm has been revealed in samples from populations exposed to pollutants and, in the absence of pollution, from areas where the average annual temperature drops below 5°С (mid-mountain regions). Instability of skull development observed in A. uralensis from the foothills of the Western Caucasus may be a consequence of competitive relationships with the Black Sea field mouse A. ponticus, a sympatric species that inhabits the same biotopes as does A. uralensis but numerically prevails over it.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Zakharov, V.M., Shkil’, F.N., and Kryazheva, N.G., Assessment of developmental stability of birch in different parts of its range, Vestn. Nizhegorod. Gos. Univ., Ser. Biol., 2005, no. 1, pp. 77–84.
Zakharov, V.M., Asimmetriya zhivotnykh (Asymmetry in Animals), Moscow: Nauka, 1987.
Chubinishvili, A.E., Baranov, A.S., and Zakharov, V.M., Amphibians: Stability of Development, in Ekologicheskoe sostoyanie basseina r. Chapaevka v usloviyakh antropogennogo vozdeistviya: Biologicheskaya indikatsiya (Ecological Status of the Chapaevka River Basin under Anthropogenic Impact: Biological Indication), Tolyatti, 1997, pp. 288–290.
Kashtal’yan, A.P., Assessment of the state of natural small mammal populations in areas with different levels of environmental and anthropogenic impact, Nauch. Vestn. Uzhgorod. Univ., Ser. Biol., 2005, no. 17, pp. 50–63.
Gurtyak, A.A., On the problem of using the coefficient of fluctuating asymmetry to assess the state of the environment in urbanized areas, Vestn. Mosk. Gos. Obl. Univ., Ser. Estestv. Nauki, 2012, no. 5, pp. 85–88.
Belyaeva, Yu.V., Parameters of fluctuating asymmetry in Betula pendula Roth. under anthropogenic impact: The example of Tolyatti municipality, Izv. Samarsk. Nauch. Tsentra Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2013, vol. 15, no. 3 (7), pp. 2196–2199.
Faizulin, A.I., Chikhlyaev, I.V., and Kuzovenko, A.E., Specific features of polymorphism in the pool frog Pelophylax lessonae (Camerano. 1882) from urbanized areas of the Middle Volga region, Izv. Samarsk. Nauch. Tsentra Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2013, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 158–163.
Zakharov, V.M., Baranov, A.S., Borisov, V.I, et al., Zdorov’e sredy: Metodika otsenki (The Health of the Environment: Methods of Assessment), Moscow, 2000.
Slonim, A.D., Ekologicheskaya fiziologiya zhivotnykh (Ecological Physiology of Animals), Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola, 1971.
Soule, M.E. and Baker, B., Phenetics of natural populations: 4. The population asymmetry parameter in the butterfly Coenonympha tullia, Heredity, 1968, vol. 23, pp. 611–614.
Amshokova, A.Kh. and Tembotova, F.A., Variation in nonmetric cranial traits of the pigmy wood mouse in the Central Caucasus: 1. Intraspecific variation depending on altitudinal gradient, in Zhivotnyi mir gornykh territorii (The Fauna of Mountain Areas), Moscow: KMK, 2009, pp. 168–174.
Vasil’ev, A.G., Vasil’eva, I.A., and Bol’shakov, V.N., Phenetic monitoring of populations of the northern red-backed vole (Clethrionomys rutilus Pall.) in the zone of the Eastern Ural Radioactive Trace, Russ. J. Ecol., 1996, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 113–120.
Peskov, V.N. and Emel’yanov, I.G., Phenetics and phenogeography of the European water vole (Arvicola terrestris), Vestn. Zool., 2000, no. 3, pp. 39–44.
Vasil’eva I.A., Vasil’ev A.G., Lyubashevskii N.M. et al. Phenogenetic analysis of pygmy wood mouse (Apodemus uralensis Pall.) populations in the zone of the Eastern Ural Radioactive Trace (EURT), Russ. J. Ecol., 2003, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 405–412.
Vasil’ev, A.G. and Vasil’eva, I.A., Gomologicheskaya izmenchivost’ morfologicheskikh struktur i epigeneticheskaya divergentsiya taksonov: osnovy populyatsionnoi meronomii (Homological Variation of Morphological Structures and Epigenetic Divergence of Taxa: Fundamentals of Population Meronomy), Moscow: KMK, 2009.
Vasil’ev, A.G., Epigeneticheskie osnovy fenetiki: na puti k populyatsionnoi meronomii (Epigenetic Bases of Phenetics: On the Way to Population Meronomy), Yekaterinburg: Akademkniga, 2005.
Markowski, J., Fluctuating asymmetry as an indicator for differentiation among roe deer Capreolus capreollus populations, Acta Theriol., 1993, vol. 38.
Vasil’ev, A.G., PHEN 3.0 Applications Software Package. https://doi.org/ecoinf.uran.ru.
Hammer, Ø., Harper, D.A.T. and Ryan, P.D., PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis, Palaeontol. Electron., 2001, vol. 4, no. 1.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © F.A. Tembotova, A.Kh. Amshokova, 2018, published in Ekologiya, 2018, No. 5, pp. 355–361.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tembotova, F.A., Amshokova, A.K. Developmental Stability of the Skull in the Pygmy Wood Mouse (Mammalia, Rodentia) along Altitudinal Gradient in the Western and Central Caucasus. Russ J Ecol 49, 395–400 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1067413618050144
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1067413618050144