Niche overlap across landscape variability in summer between two large herbivores using eDNA metabarcoding.
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_B793A0A417C8
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Niche overlap across landscape variability in summer between two large herbivores using eDNA metabarcoding.
Journal
PloS one
ISSN
1932-6203 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1932-6203
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2024
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Editor
Walter W. David
Volume
19
Number
2
Pages
e0279672
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: epublish
Publication Status: epublish
Abstract
Understanding the relationship between a species feeding strategy and its environment (trophic ecology) is critical to assess environmental requirements and improve management policies. However, measuring trophic interactions remains challenging. Among the available methods, quantifying the plant composition of a species' diet indicates how species use their environment and their associated niche overlap. Nevertheless, most studies focusing on herbivore trophic ecology ignore the influence that landscape variability may have. Here, we explored how landscape variability influences diet composition through niche overlap. We used eDNA metabarcoding to quantify the diet composition of two large herbivores of the Bialowieza Forest, red deer (Cervus elaphus) and European bison (Bison bonasus) to investigate how increasing habitat quality (i.e. higher abundance of deciduous forage species) and predation risk (i.e. density of wolf in the area) influence their diet composition and niche partitioning. Our findings indicate diet composition is non-homogeneous across the landscape, both within and between species. Red deer showed greater diet variability and lower niche overlap within species compared to bison. We detected a reduction of niche overlap for red deer with increasing predation risk, leading to more dissimilar diets, suggesting their feeding behaviour is affected by wolf presence. This correlation was not found for bison, which are rarely predated by wolf. Higher habitat quality was associated with higher niche overlap only within bison, probably due to their suboptimal feeding strategy as browsers. These results show the importance of integrating environment-induced diet variation in studies aimed at determining the landscape usage or niche overlap of a species.
Keywords
Animals, Herbivory, Bison/genetics, Wolves, Deer, Feeding Behavior, Ecosystem
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / 310030_192512
University of Lausanne
Create date
14/02/2024 10:37
Last modification date
05/09/2024 9:00