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Studies of Variations in Weight and Volume of Internal Organs of Microtus agrestis (L.) and their Possible Relation to Fluctuations in Population Density 1
Author(s) -
Giege B.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
eppo bulletin
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.327
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1365-2338
pISSN - 0250-8052
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2338.1977.tb02735.x
Subject(s) - microtus , spleen , endogeny , biology , endocrinology , population , adipose tissue , medicine , muscle hypertrophy , brown adipose tissue , zoology , immunology , environmental health
This paper discusses the possibility of measuring the cumulative effect upon voles of measurable and immeasurable, endogenous and exogenous stress factors. Variations in certain internal organs (adrenals, thymus, spleen, brown adipose tissue) were studied in 2 populations of Microtus agrestis (L.) in Sweden. Both these populations ended in a crash, but after a different period of time. Variations in the internal organs observed during certain investigation periods up to the crash are discussed. Weight of adrenals appeared to be dependent on population density. Spleen hypertrophy did not seem to appear untU stress reached a certain level and after that was more or less persistent. Thus, the spleen might well be a good indicator of the cumulative effect of exogenous and endogenous stress. The amount of axillary brown adipose tissue could, to a certain extent, be a measure of mean ambient temperature, and, perhaps, could also give information on incipient stress situations. The investigation indicated that there are reasons to assume correlation exists between spleen hypertrophy in voles and their damage to plants.