Effect of rainfall, temperature and climate change on the ecology of the rodents of arid zones: a review

Abstract

Rodents are one of the most abundant and diverse groups of mammals in arid zones. Their population and community dynamics are closely linked to climatic factors and pulses of primary productivity activation. In the future, climatic conditions in arid ecosystems could become more extreme as a consequence of climate change, which could affect the species that inhabit these regions. In this paper, we review the literature on the ecological response of rodents in the world's arid zones, at the population and community levels, to climatological factors (temperature and precipitation), climatic events and the possible impact of climate change. We used the PRISMA protocol to systematically search the literature, and the “vote‐counting” method to count positive, null or negative responses of the rodents. At the population level, rodent density and abundance responded positively to precipitation, while biomass responded negatively and reproduction responded positively to increasing temperature. At the community level, rodent density, biomass and diversity increased after rainfall. El Niño events were positively related to rodent population increases. In contrast, intense storms affected the survival of some species. Rodents with physiological adaptations suited to living in arid areas, for example, the heteromyids, responded positively to precipitation and could suffer fewer negative ecological consequences in the future when exposed to increased temperature and changes in precipitation.