Environmental stress as an indicator of anthropogenic impact across the African Albertine Rift: a case study using museum specimens

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We examined fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and body condition (BC) as two measures of environmental stress using museum specimens of Lophuromys aquilus, a rodent species complex wide-spread across the African Albertine Rift. We related FA and BC to a spatially-derived index of anthropogenic impact using a principal components analysis (PCA). We found no relationship between the four PCA scores and mean FA or BC, but did find that FA variance was higher in areas with lower anthropogenic impact. There was also a negative, albeit non-significant, trend for PC3, suggesting that populations with higher than average BC were in areas with higher anthropogenic impact. Overall, our case study does not support FA and BC as effective predictors of environmental stress with low to moderate habitat disturbance. In fact, L. aquilus, as a habitat generalist, may be positively affected by some aspects of anthropogenic change. Studies relating environmental stress to anthropogenic impact should examine sites with a wide range of habitat qualities and human impact and utilize multiple measures of environmental stress to characterize the health of one or more populations.