Museum specimen data predict crop damage by tropical rodents

Museum specimen data predict crop damage by tropical rodents

^*Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-153, México, D.F. 04510, México; and ^‡Department of Geography and Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045

Edited by David B. Wake, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved April 5, 2000 (received for review November 10, 1999)

Abstract

Museum collections constitute a massive store of information on biological diversity. We used museum specimen data to generate ecological niche models that provide predictions of geographic distributions of native rodent pest species and agricultural census data that summarize the geographic distribution of nine crops in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, as well as crop losses between planting and harvest. Herein, we show that crop damage is related significantly to the predicted presence of rodent species for seven of nine crops. Museum collections may thus provide important baseline information for designing land-use and agricultural pest-management programs.

Footnotes

↵ † To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: victors{at}ibiologia.unam.mx.
This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
Abbreviations:

GARP,

Genetic Algorithm for Rule-Set Prediction;

G,

granivore;

H,

herbivore;

O,

omnivore