First published online May 24, 2004
Journal of Experimental Biology 207, 2221-2227 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01026
Relationship between the energetic cost of burrowing and genetic variability among populations of the pocket gopher, T. bottae: does physiological fitness correlate with genetic variability?
K. Kelly Hildner1,* and
Michael E. Soulé2
1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
2 Environmental Studies UCSC, PO Box Hotchkiss, CO 81419, USA

View larger version (18K):
[in a new window]
|
Fig. 1. Schematic of burrowing apparatus with distance measurements. Distance from
the starting end of the tube was recorded to the nearest tenth of a centimeter
at the commencement of burrowing (S) and when the gopher reached the
end of the tube or stopped burrowing consistently (T). The total
distance burrowed (D) was then calculated as
D=TS. In cases where the gopher did not push
all of the sand out of the tube and into the chamber, the amount of the tube
that was filled with sand (F) was also recorded to the nearest tenth
of a centimeter.
|
|

View larger version (17K):
[in a new window]
|
Fig. 2. The mass-adjusted cost of burrowing for individuals from high and low
genetic variability populations (see Table
2). Error bars represent ±1 S.E.M. Sample sizes
are in parentheses.
|
|

View larger version (15K):
[in a new window]
|
Fig. 3. Difference in adjusted cost versus fractional difference in
allozyme heterozygosity. Each point represents one pair of populations. The
ordinate is the difference in mass-adjusted cost of burrowing for the two
populations, and the abscissa is the difference in allozyme heterozygosity for
the two populations divided by the mean heterozygosity for that pair.
|
|
© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2004