The effect of climate change on Merriamʹs kangaroo rat, Dipodomys merriami

We examined the relationship between body size of Dipodomys merriami and specific climate variables for the years 1989 through 1996 at the Sevilleta LTER Station. Earlier work demonstrated a 2–3°C increase in both summer and winter temperatures at Sevilleta over this time period. In that study, Neotoma albigulaʹs adult mean body mass decreased as temperature increased. Dipodomys merriamiʹs 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 relationship with one axis of a PCA of the correlated climate variables.