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109 results for “mammal community”

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dryad36/100

A standardized assessment of forest mammal communities reveals consistent functional composition and vulnerability across the tropics

Understanding global diversity patterns has benefitted from a focus on functional traits and how they relate to variation in environmental conditions among assemblages. Distant communities in similar environments often share characteristics, and for tropical forest mammals, this functional trait convergence has been demonstrated at coarse scales (110-200 km resolution), but less is known about how these patterns manifest at fine scales, where local processes (e.g., habitat features and anthropogenic activities) and biotic interactions occur. Here, we used standardized camera trapping data and a novel analytical method that accounts for imperfect detection to assess how the functional composition of terrestrial mammal communities for two traits – trophic guild and body mass – varies across 16 protected areas in tropical forests and three continents, in relation to the extent of protected habitat and anthropogenic pressures. We found that despite their taxonomic differences, communities generally have a consistent trophic guild composition, and respond similarly to these factors. Insectivores were found to be sensitive to the size of protected habitat and surrounding human population density. Body mass distribution varied little among communities both in terms of central tendency and spread, and interestingly, community average body mass declined with proximity to human settlements. Results indicate predicted trait convergence among assemblages at the coarse scale reflects consistent functional composition among communities at the local scale, suggesting that broadly similar habitats and selective pressures shaped communities with similar trophic strategies and responses to drivers of change. These similarities provide a foundation for assessing assemblages under anthropogenic threats and sharing conservation measures.Understanding global diversity patterns has benefitted from a focus on functional traits and how they relate to variation in environmental conditions among assemblages. Distant communities in similar environments often share characteristics, and for tropical forest mammals, this functional trait convergence has been demonstrated at coarse scales (110-200 km resolution), but less is known about how these patterns manifest at fine scales, where local processes (e.g., habitat features and anthropogenic activities) and biotic interactions occur. Here, we used standardized camera trapping data and a novel analytical method that accounts for imperfect detection to assess how the functional composition of terrestrial mammal communities for two traits – trophic guild and body mass – varies across 16 protected areas in tropical forests and three continents, in relation to the extent of protected habitat and anthropogenic pressures. We found that despite their taxonomic differences, communities generally have a consistent trophic guild composition, and respond similarly to these factors. Insectivores were found to be sensitive to the size of protected habitat and surrounding human population density. Body mass distribution varied little among communities both in terms of central tendency and spread, and interestingly, community average body mass declined with proximity to human settlements. Results indicate predicted trait convergence among assemblages at the coarse scale reflects consistent functional composition among communities at the local scale, suggesting that broadly similar habitats and selective pressures shaped communities with similar trophic strategies and responses to drivers of change. These similarities provide a foundation for assessing assemblages under anthropogenic threats and sharing conservation measures.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

dryad36/100

Airborne eDNA documents a diverse and ecologically complex tropical bat and other mammal community

Environmental (e)DNA has rapidly become a powerful biomonitoring tool, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. This approach has not been as widely adopted in terrestrial communities where the methods of vertebrate eDNA collection have varied from the use of secondary collectors such as blood-feeding parasites and spider webs to washing surfaces of leaves and soil sampling. Recent studies have demonstrated the potential of direct collection of eDNA from air sampling, but none have tested how effective airborne eDNA sampling might be in a biodiverse environment. We used three prototype samplers to actively sample a mixed neotropical bat community in a partially controlled environment. We assess whether airborne eDNA can accurately characterize a high-diversity community with skewed abundances and to determine if filter design impacts DNA collection and taxonomic recovery. Our study provides evidence for the accuracy of airborne eDNA as a detection tool and highlights its potential for monitoring high-density, diverse assemblages such as bat roosts. Analysis of air samples recovered >91% of the species present and some limited relationship between species abundance and read count. Our data suggest this method can accurately depict a diverse mixed mammal community, particularly when the location is contained (e.g., a roost, den or burrow) but also highlights the potential for secondary transfer of eDNA material on clothing and equipment. Our results also demonstrate that simple, inexpensive, battery-operated homemade air samplers can collect an abundance of eDNA from the air, opening the opportunity for sampling in remote environments.

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Supporting isotopic data for: Amino acid isotope analysis reveals variation in gut microbial contribution to host protein metabolism in a wild small mammal community

Herbivory is a dominant feeding strategy among animals, yet herbivores are often protein limited. The gut microbiome is hypothesized to help maintain host protein balance by provisioning essential macromolecules, but this has never been tested in wild consumers. Using amino acid carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analysis, we estimated the proportional contributions of essential amino acids (AAESS) synthesized by gut microbes to five co-occurring desert rodents representing herbivorous, omnivorous, and insectivorous functional groups. We found that herbivorous rodents occupying lower trophic positions (Dipodomys spp.) routed a substantial proportion (~40–50%) of their AAESS from gut microbes, while higher trophic level omnivores (Peromyscus spp.) and insectivores (Onychomys arenicola) obtained most of their AAESS (~58%) from plant-based energy channels but still received ~20% of their AAESS from gut microbes. These findings empirically demonstrate that gut microbes play a key functional role in host protein metabolism in wild animals.

opencc-zeroMay 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Data for Multidimensional diversity drives stability of mammal communities with large carnivores in temperate forests

R code and data for Multidimensional diversity drives stability of mammal communities with large carnivores in temperate forests

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Host phylogeny and functional traits differentiate gut microbiomes in a diverse natural community of small mammals

Differences in the bacteria inhabiting mammalian gut microbiomes tend to reflect the phylogenetic relatedness of their hosts, a pattern dubbed phylosymbiosis. Although most research on this pattern has compared the gut microbiomes of host species across biomes, understanding the evolutionary and ecological processes that generate phylosymbiosis requires comparisons across phylogenetic scales and under similar ecological conditions. We analyzed the gut microbiomes of 14 sympatric small-mammal species in a semi-arid African savanna, hypothesizing that there would be a strong phylosymbiosis pattern associated with the different body sizes and diets of the mammalian lineages present. Consistent with phylosymbiosis, microbiome dissimilarity increased with phylogenetic distance among hosts, ranging from congeneric sets of mice and hares that did not differ significantly in microbiome composition to species from different taxonomic orders that had almost no gut bacteria in common. While phylosymbiosis was detected among just the 11 species of rodents, it was substantially weaker than comparisons involving all 14 species together. In contrast, microbiome diversity and composition were generally more strongly correlated with body size, dietary breadth, and dietary overlap in comparisons restricted to rodents than in those including all lineages. The starkest divides in microbiome composition thus reflected the broad evolutionary divergence of hosts, regardless of body size or dietary composition, while subtler microbiome differences reflected variation in ecologically important traits between closely related hosts. Strong phylosymbiotic patterns arose deep in the phylogeny, and ecological filters that promote functional differentiation of cooccurring host species may disrupt or obscure this pattern near the tips.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Effects of large mammal exclusion on seedling communities depend on plant species traits and landscape protection in human-modified Costa Rican forests

<ol> <li>Large terrestrial herbivorous mammals (LTH-mammals) influence plant community structure by affecting seedling establishment in mature tropical forests. Many of these LTH-mammals frequent secondary forests, but their effects on seedling establishment in them are understudied, hindering our understanding of how LTH-mammals influence forest regeneration in human-modified landscapes.</li> <li>We tested the hypothesis that the strength of LTH-mammals' effects on seedling establishment depends on landscape protection, forest successional stage, and plant species' traits using a manipulative field experiment in six 1-ha sites with varying successional age and landscape protection. In each site, we established forty seedling plot-pairs, with one plot excluding LTH-mammals and one not, and monitored seedlings of 116 woody species for 26 months.</li> <li>We found significant effects of LTH-mammal exclusion on seedling survival contingent upon the protection of forests at the landscape level and forest stage. After 26 months, survival differences between LTH-mammal exclusion and non-exclusion treatments were greater in protected than unprotected landscapes. Additionally, plant species' traits were related to the LTH-mammals' differential effects, as LTH-mammals reduced the survival of seedlings of larger-seeded species the most. Overall, LTH-mammals' effects translated into significant shifts in community composition as seedling communities inside and outside the exclosures diverged. Moreover, lower density and higher species diversity were found as early as 12 and 18 months outside than inside exclosures.</li> <li> Synthesis and applications. Insight into the interactions between LTH-mammals and seedling communities in forest regeneration can be instrumental in planning effective restoration efforts. We highlight the importance of landscape protection in seedling survival and the role of LTH-mammals in promoting seedling diversity in mature forests but also in secondary successional forests. The findings suggest that conservation efforts and possibly trophic rewilding can be important approaches for preserving diversity and influencing the trajectory of secondary tropical forest succession. However, we also caution that an overabundance of LTH-mammals may adversely impact the pace of forest succession due to their preference for large-seeded species. Therefore, a comprehensive wildlife management plan is indispensable. Additionally, longer-term studies on LTH-mammals are necessary to understand the effects of temporal fluctuations that are undetected in short-term studies.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroOct 2023View details →

dryad36/100