Meeting Abstract

P3-8   -   Analyses of baseline ecological data to address local impact of climate change on woodrats Mulford, JM*; Connors, PK; Colorado Mesa University; Colorado Mesa University jadamulford@gmail.com

Small mammals are responding to climate change in various ways, including local extinctions and range shifts. Range shifts include movement to cooler temperatures, which often result in shifts to higher latitudes and higher elevations over decades. A recent study in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States documented such shifts in small mammals, including the woodrat. Woodrats (genus Neotoma) may move upslope due to ecological competition, changes in predation pressure, or the physiological pressures of ingesting plants in a warming climate. The focus of this project was to address the impact of climate change on woodrats in western Colorado. To determine this, I compared the historical and current presence of woodrats in Mesa County, and then evaluated their historical and current temperatures. I conducted a literature search that demonstrated historical documentation of Neotoma mexicana, N. lepida, and N. Cinerea in this area. The presence of current species was ascertained after 394 trap nights at a single location, and at least two species were identified: N. mexicana, N. albigula, and a potential hybrid between N. albigula and N. cinerea. To determine current temperature profiles at the microclimate scale, ambient HOBO data loggers were deployed throughout the trapping site. I calculated the daily and monthly temperature values, indices of stress (such as the number of days when the daily maximum temperature was above woodrat lethal temperature) and compared modern temperature values from weather stations to data collected from the loggers. These data were critical for understanding the microclimate temperature that woodrats are presently experiencing and for creating a historical basis of temperature values for comparison. This collection of baseline ecological data has helped us understand impacts of climate change on a local population of woodrats.