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155 results for “large herbivores”
Data from: Mechanisms and implications of a type IV functional response for short-term intake rate of dry matter in large mammalian herbivores
1. The functional response (i.e. the relationship between consumers' intake rate and resource density) is central in plant-herbivore interactions. Its shape and the biological processes leading to it have significant implications for both foraging theory and ecology of grazing systems. 2. A type IV functional response (i.e. dome-shaped relationship) of short-term intake rate of dry matter (intake while grazing) has rarely been reported for large herbivores and the conditions that can lead to it are poorly understood. 3. We report a type IV functional response observed in heifers grazing monocultures of Cynodon sp. and Avena strigosa. The mechanisms and consequences of this type of functional response for grazed system dynamics are discussed. 4. Intake rate was higher at intermediate than at short or tall sward heights in both grass species. The type IV functional response resulted from changes in bite mass instead of a longer time needed to encounter and process bites. Thus, the decrease of intake rate of dry matter in tall swards is not explained by a shift from process 3 (potential bites are concentrated and apparent) to process 2 (potential bites are apparent but dispersed, Spalinger & Hobbs 1992). Bite mass was smaller in tall than in intermediate swards due to a reduction of bite volume possibly caused by the greater proportion of stem and sheath acting as a physical barrier to bite formation. 5. It is generally accepted that potential bites are abundant and apparent in most grassland and meadow systems, as they were in the present experiments. Therefore, a type IV response of intake rate not directly related to digestive constraints may determine the dynamics of intake and defoliation under a much larger set of conditions than previously thought. These results have implications for foraging theory and stability of grazing systems. For example, if animals prefer patches of intermediate stature that yield the highest intake rate, grazing should lead to the widely observed bimodal distribution of plant mass per unit area, even when tall patches are not of significantly lower digestive quality than the pasture average.
Data from: Migratory plasticity is not ubiquitous among large herbivores
1. The migratory movements of wild animals can promote abundance and support ecosystem functioning. For large herbivores, mounting evidence suggests that migratory behavior is an individually variable trait, where individuals can easily switch between migrant and resident tactics. The degree of migratory plasticity, including whether and where to migrate, has important implications for the ecology and conservation of large herbivores in a changing world. 2. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are an iconic species of western North America, but are notably absent from the body of literature that suggests large herbivore migrations are highly plastic. We evaluated plasticity of migration in female mule deer using longitudinal GPS data collected from 312 individuals across 9 populations in the western US, including 882 animal-years (801 migrants and 81 residents). 3. We followed both resident and migratory mule deer through time to determine if individual animals switched migratory behaviors (i.e., whether to migrate) from migratory to residency, or vice versa. Additionally, we examined the fidelity of individuals to their migration routes (i.e., where to migrate) to determine if they used the same routes year after year. We also evaluated if age and reproductive status affected propensity to migrate or fidelity to migratory routes. 4. Our results indicate that mule deer, unlike other large herbivores, have little or no plasticity in terms of whether or where they migrate. Resident deer remained residents, and migrant deer remained migrants, regardless of age, reproductive status, or number of years monitored. Further, migratory individuals showed strong fidelity (>80%) to their migration routes year after year. 5. Our study clearly shows that migration plasticity is not ubiquitous among large herbivores. Because of their rigid migratory behavior, mule deer may not adapt to changing environmental conditions as readily as large herbivores with more plastic migratory behavior (e.g., elk). The fixed migratory behaviors of mule deer make clear that conservation efforts aimed at traditional seasonal ranges and migration routes are warranted for sustaining this iconic species that continues to decline across its range.
Data from: Indirect effects of a large mammalian herbivore on small mammal populations: context-dependent variation across habitat types, mammal species and seasons
Multiple consumer species frequently co-occur in the same landscape and, through effects on surrounding environments, can interact in direct and indirect ways. These interactions can vary in occurrence and importance, and focusing on this variation is critical for understanding the dynamics of interactions among consumers. Large mammalian herbivores are important engineers of ecosystems worldwide, have substantial impacts on vegetation and can indirectly affect small-mammal populations. However, the degree to which such indirect effects vary within the same system has received minimal attention. We used a 16-year-old exclosure experiment, stratified across a heterogeneous landscape, to evaluate the importance of context-dependent interactions between tule elk (Cervus canadensis nannodes) and small mammals [deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), meadow voles (Microtus californicus) and harvest mice (Reithrodontymys megalotis)] in a coastal grassland in California. Effects of elk on voles varied among habitats and seasons: in open grasslands, elk reduced vole numbers during fall 2013 but not summer 2014; in Lupinus-dominated grasslands, elk reduced vole numbers during summer 2014 but not fall 2013; and in Baccharis-dominated grasslands, elk had no effect on vole numbers in either season. Effects of elk on the two mice species also varied among habitats and seasons, but often in different ways from voles and each other. In fall 2013, elk decreased mice abundances in Lupinus-dominated grasslands, but not in Baccharis-dominated or open grasslands. In summer 2014, elk decreased the abundance of harvest mice consistently across habitat types. In contrast, elk increased deer-mice numbers in open grasslands but not other habitats. Within the same heterogenous study system, the influence of elk on small mammals was strongly context dependent, varying among habitats, mammal species and seasons. We hypothesize that such variability is common in nature, and that failure to consider it may yield inaccurate findings and limit our understanding of interactions among co-occurring consumers.
Data from: Spatial memory shapes migration and its benefits: evidence from a large herbivore
From fine-scale foraging to broad-scale migration, animal movement is shaped by the distribution of resources. There is mounting evidence, however, that learning and memory also guide movement. Although migratory mammals commonly track resource waves, how resource tracking and memory guide long-distance migration has not been reconciled. We examined these hypotheses using movement data from four populations of migratory mule deer (n=91). Spatial memory had an extraordinary influence on migration, affecting movement 2–28 times more strongly than tracking spring green-up or autumn snow depth. Importantly, with only an ability to track resources, simulated deer were unable to recreate empirical migratory routes. In contrast, simulated deer with memory of empirical routes, used those routes and obtained higher foraging benefits. For migratory terrestrial mammals, spatial memory provides knowledge of where seasonal ranges and migratory routes exist, while resource tracking determines when to beneficially move within those areas.
Data from: Strong positive effects of termites on savanna bird abundance and diversity are amplified by large herbivore exclusion
Vast areas of the African savanna landscapes are characterized by tree-covered Macrotermes termite mounds embedded within a relatively open savanna matrix. In concert with termites, large herbivores are important determinants of savanna woody vegetation cover. The relative cover of woody species has considerable effects on savanna function. Despite the potentially important ecological relationships between termite mounds, woody plants, large herbivores, and birds, these associations have previously received surprisingly little attention. We experimentally studied the effects of termites and large herbivores on the avian community in Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda, where woody vegetation is essentially limited to termite mounds. Our experiment comprised of four treatments in nine replicates; unfenced termite mounds, fenced mounds (excluding large mammals), unfenced adjacent savanna, and fenced savanna. We recorded species identity, abundance, and behavior of all birds observed on these plots over a two-month period, from late dry until wet season. Birds used termite mounds almost exclusively, with only 3.5% of observations occurring in the treeless intermound savanna matrix. Mean abundance and species richness of birds doubled on fenced (large herbivores excluded) compared to unfenced mounds. Feeding behavior increased when large mammals were excluded from mounds, both in absolute number of observed individuals, and relative to other behaviors. This study documents the fundamental positive impact of Macrotermes termites on bird abundance and diversity in an African savanna. Birds play crucial functional roles in savanna ecosystems, for example, by dispersing fruits or regulating herbivorous insect populations. Thus, the role of birds in savanna dynamics depends on the distribution and abundance of termite mounds.
Data from: Feces nitrogen release induced by different large herbivores in a dry grassland
Large herbivores have pronounced effects on nutrient cycling in grasslands. These organisms are known to alter the quality and quantity of plant production as well as the amounts and quality of plant litter and animal wastes. The generalization that the relative quality of detritus inputs is enhanced by herbivores is well known, but how this process is affected by diet selection processing and feces production of different large herbivores remains largely unstudied. Here, we measured how these differences for cattle and sheep on a dry grassland might influence nitrogen (N) mineralization from feces. We found that cattle of larger body size tended to select low quality grass Stipa grandis as the major food source. In contrast, the subdominant grass Leymus chinensis with relatively high N content was a majority in the diet of smaller sheep, when palatable forbs were insufficient in the field. This diverse diet quality resulted in a C/N ratio of cattle feces that was higher than that of sheep feces. Relatively higher labile C availability in the cattle feces, namely relatively higher cellulose/hemicellulose contents, promoted microbial growth and in turn accelerated cattle feces decomposition. A surprise finding was that the feces from cattle mineralized about twice as much N as feces from sheep, despite the latter having slightly higher N content. From a grassland productivity perspective, increasing the proportion of large body-sized species in grazing herbivore assemblages perhaps is beneficial to forage productivity and nutrient recycling by the rapid degradation of feces.
Data from: Impacts of grazing by different large herbivores in grassland depend on plant species diversity
1. It is well documented that large herbivores have pronounced effects on plant communities in grassland ecosystems, and the extent and course of their effects can largely depend on both plant and herbivore characteristics. Previous studies highlighted the importance of plant productivity in predicting the impact of herbivores on grasslands. Yet, there has been little consideration of how different herbivores affect plant communities that, in turn, differ in plant diversity. 2. In a 2-year grazing experiment, we tested the effects of large herbivores (cattle or sheep, or both together) on plant communities under high and low plant diversity levels in eastern Eurasian steppe. 3. We found that, for high plant diversity grassland, mixed grazing by cattle and sheep significantly increases plant diversity, but we found no effect of grazing by cattle or sheep alone. Grazing by cattle or sheep alone or mixed grazing by cattle and sheep did not significantly affect plant biomass in the high diversity grassland. However, for low plant diversity grassland, grazing by cattle alone and mixed grazing by cattle and sheep significantly increased plant diversity, but significantly decreased plant biomass. There was no significant impact on both plant diversity and biomass from sheep grazing. 4. Synthesis and applications. We conclude that the effects of grazing in grassland strongly depend on herbivore assemblages and pre-grazing plant diversity. Herbivore grazing might contribute more to the maintenance of grassland structure and ecosystem functioning under high plant diversity compared with low plant diversity. Furthermore, our data suggest that multiple-species mixed grazing regimes in grassland systems with high plant diversity could represent the optimal protocol for grazing management. This study emphasizes the importance of maintaining both plant and herbivore diversity to optimize ecosystem functioning.
On this side of the fence: Functional responses to linear landscape features shape the home range of large herbivores
<p>1. Understanding the consequences of global change for animal movement is a major issue for conservation and management. In particular, habitat fragmentation generates increased densities of linear landscape features that can impede movements.</p> <p>2. While the influence of these features on animal movements has been intensively investigated, they may also play a key role at broader spatial scales (e.g. the home range scale) as resources, cover from predators/humans, corridors/barriers, or landmarks. How space use respond to varying densities of linear features has been mostly overlooked in large herbivores, in contrast to studies done on predators. Focusing on large herbivores should provide additional insights to understand how animals solve the trade-off between energy acquisition and mortality risk.</p> <p>3. Here, we investigated the role of anthropogenic (roads and tracks) and natural (ridges, valley bottoms and forest edges) linear features on home range features in five large herbivores. We analysed an extensive GPS monitoring data base of 696 individuals across nine populations, ranging from mountain areas mostly divided by natural features to lowlands that were highly fragmented by anthropogenic features.</p> <p>4. Nearly all of the linear features studied were found at the home range periphery, suggesting that large herbivores primarily use them as landmarks to delimit their home range. In contrast, for mountain species, ridges often occurred in the core range, probably related to their functional role in terms of resources and refuge. When the density of linear features was high, they no longer occurred predominantly at the home range periphery, but instead were found across much of the home range. We suggest that, in highly fragmented landscapes, large herbivores are constrained by the costs of memorising the spatial location of key features, and by the requirement for a minimum area to satisfy their vital needs.</p> <p>5. These patterns were mostly consistent in both males and females and across species, suggesting that linear features have a preponderant influence on how large herbivores perceive and use the landscape.</p>
Data from: Reintroducing extirpated herbivores could partially reverse the late Quaternary decline of large and grazing species
<p><strong>Aim: </strong>Reinstating large, native herbivores is an essential component of ecological restoration efforts, as these taxa can be important drivers of ecological processes. However, many herbivore species have gone globally or regionally extinct during the last 50,000 years, leaving simplified herbivore assemblages and trophically downgraded ecosystems. Here, we discuss to what extent trophic rewilding can undo these changes by reinstating native herbivores.</p> <p><strong>Location: </strong>Global</p> <p><strong>Time Period: </strong>We report functional trait changes from the Late Pleistocene to the present, and estimated trait changes under future scenarios.</p> <p><strong>Major Taxa Studied: </strong>Wild, large (≥10 kg), terrestrial, mammalian herbivores</p> <p><strong>Methods: </strong>We use a functional trait dataset containing all late Quaternary large herbivores ≥10 kg to look at changes in the body mass and diet composition of herbivore assemblages, a proxy for species' ecological effects. First, we assess how these traits have changed from the Late Pleistocene to the present. Next, we quantify how the current body mass and diet composition would change if all extant, wild herbivores were restored to their native ranges (and if no functional replacements were used), exploring scenarios with different baselines.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Defaunation has primarily removed large and grazing herbivores. Reinstating extant herbivores across their native ranges would reverse these changes, especially when reinstating them to their prehistoric distributions. It would partially restore herbivore body mass and diet composition to pre-anthropogenic conditions. However, in the absence of complementary interventions (e.g. introducing functional replacements), many herbivore assemblages would remain down-sized and browser dominated, relative to pre-anthropogenic conditions.</p> <p><strong>Main Conclusions: </strong>Many terrestrial herbivore assemblages - and hence ecosystems - would remain trophically downgraded, even after bringing back all extant, native herbivores. Therefore, complementary interventions would be required to achieve complete functional restoration. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that reintroducing the remaining native herbivores would diversify the herbivory and disturbances of herbivore assemblages.</p>
Risky movements? Natal dispersal does not decrease survival of a large herbivore
<p>Natal dispersal is assumed to be a particularly risky movement behavior as individuals transfer, often long distances, from birth site to site of potential first reproduction. Though, because this behavior persists in populations, it is assumed that dispersal increases the fitness of individuals despite the potential for increased risk of mortality. The extent of dispersal risk, however, has rarely been tested, especially for large mammals. Therefore, we aimed to test the relationship between dispersal and survival for both males and females in a large herbivore. Using a radio-transmittered sample of 398 juvenile male and 277 juvenile female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), we compared survival rates of dispersers and non-dispersers. We predicted that dispersing deer would experience greater overall mortality than philopatric deer due to direct transfer-related risks (e.g., vehicular collision), indirect immigration-related mortality attributable to colonization of unfamiliar habitat, and increased over-winter mortality associated with energetic costs of movement and unfamiliarity with recently colonized habitat. For both male and female yearlings, survival rates of dispersers (male = 49.9%, female = 64.0%) did not differ from non-dispersers (male = 51.6%, female = 70.7%). Only two individuals (both female) were killed by vehicular collision during transfer, and over-winter survival patterns were similar between the two groups. Although dispersal movement likely incurs energetic costs on dispersers, these costs do not necessarily translate to decreased survival. In many species, including white-tailed deer, dispersal is likely condition-dependent, such that larger and healthier individuals are more likely to disperse; therefore, costs associated with dispersal are more likely to be borne successfully by those individuals that do disperse. Whether low-risk dispersal of large mammals is the rule or the exception will require additional research. Further, future research is needed to evaluate non-survival fitness-related costs and benefits of dispersal (e.g., increased reproductive opportunities for dispersers).</p>
Large herbivores facilitate a dominant grassland plant via multiple indirect effects
<p>While large herbivores are critically important components of terrestrial ecosystems and can have pronounced top-down effects on plants, our understanding of the underlying mechanisms driving these effects remains incomplete. Large herbivores can alter plant growth, reproduction and abundance through direct effects (predominantly consumption) and through indirect effects via altered interactions with abiotic factors and other species. We know considerably less about these indirect effects than the direct effects. Here, we integrate medium- and small-scale field experiments to investigate how a large vertebrate herbivore, cattle (<i>Bos taurus</i>), affects the aboveground biomass of a dominant forb species, <i>Artemisia scoparia</i>, via diverse direct and indirect pathways in a temperate grassland in northeast China. Although cattle consumed this forb, its biomass increased significantly in response to grazing, due to multiple indirect positive effects that outweighed the direct negative effects of consumption. Cattle preferentially consumed the competing grass <i>Leymus chinensis</i>, and altered <i>Artemisia</i> microhabitats by reducing total plant cover and litter biomass and by increasing the abundance of co-occurring ant species (e.g., <i><span>Formica </span></i>spp. and <i>Lasius </i>spp.). This led to additional indirect positive effects on <i>A. scoparia</i> likely due to 1) increased light availability in understory layers and other limiting resources (e.g., soil nutrients and moisture) caused by removal of competitors and plant litter at the soil surface and 2) the changes in resource availability (e.g., soil nutrients and moisture) associated with ant colonies. Our results show that large herbivores can affect plant growth not only via direct consumption, but also via multiple indirect effects. Focusing on the causes and consequences of herbivore-induced indirect effects will not only help us to better understand the influence of these animals in ecological systems, but will also lead to more effective land management and conservation practices in the regions they inhabit.</p>
Continuous presence of proto-cereals in Anatolia since 2.3 Ma, and their possible co-evolution with large herbivores and hominins
<p>pollen data from the published paper in Scientific Reports: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86423-8</p>
Mechanisms of dietary resource partitioning in large-herbivore assemblages: a plant-trait-based approach
<p>Sympatric large mammalian herbivore species differ in diet composition, both by eating different parts of the same plant and by eating different plant species. Various theories proposed to explain these differences are not mutually exclusive, but are difficult to reconcile and confront with data. Moreover, whereas several of these ideas were originally developed with reference to within-plant partitioning (i.e., consumption of different tissues), they may analogously apply to partitioning of plant species; this possibility has received little attention.</p> <p>Plant functional traits provide a novel window into herbivore diets and a means of testing multiple hypotheses in a unified framework. We used DNA metabarcoding to characterize the diets of 14 sympatric large-herbivore species in an African savanna and analyzed diet composition in light of 27 functional traits that we measured locally for 204 plant species.</p> <p>Plant traits associated with the deep phylogenetic split between grasses and eudicots formed the primary axis of resource partitioning, affirming the generality and importance of the grazer-browser spectrum. A secondary axis comprised plant traits relevant to herbivore body size. Plant taxa in the diets of large-bodied species were lower on average in digestible energy and protein, taller on average (especially among grazers), and tended to be higher in tensile strength, zinc, stem-specific density, and potassium (and lower in sodium, stem dry matter content, and copper). These results are consistent with longstanding hypotheses linking body size with forage quality and plant height, yet they also suggest the existence of undiscovered links between herbivore body size and a set of rarely considered food-plant traits. We also tested the novel hypothesis that the leaf economic spectrum (LES), a major focus in plant ecology, is an axis of resource partitioning in large-herbivore assemblages; we found that the LES was a minor axis of individual variation within a few species, but had little effect on interspecific dietary differentiation.</p> <p>Synthesis. These results identify key plant traits that underpin the partitioning of food-plant species in large-herbivore communities and suggest that accounting for multiple plant traits (and tradeoffs among them) will enable a deeper understanding of herbivore-plant interaction networks.</p>
Mechanisms of individual variation in large herbivore diets: Roles of spatial heterogeneity and state-dependent foraging
<p>Many populations of consumers consist of relatively specialized individuals that eat only a subset of the foods consumed by the population at large. Although the ecological significance of individual specialization is recognized, it is difficult to document and its underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Optimal foraging theory provides a useful framework for predicting how individuals might select different diets, positing that animals balance the 'opportunity cost' of stopping to eat an available food item against the cost of searching for something more nutritious; diet composition should be contingent on the distribution of food, and foragers should be more specialized when individuals have high energy reserves to spend searching for high-quality foods. We tested these predicted mechanisms of individual niche differences by quantifying environmental (resource heterogeneity) and organismal (nutritional condition) determinants of diet in a widespread browsing antelope (bushbuck, <em>Tragelaphus sylvaticus</em>) in an African floodplain-savanna ecosystem. We quantified individual diet breadth and composition using DNA metabarcoding of fecal samples collected repeatedly from 15 GPS-collared animals (6–14 samples per individual, median 12). Bushbuck diets were structured by spatial heterogeneity and constrained by individual conditions. We observed significant individual-level partitioning of food plants by bushbuck both within and between two adjacent habitat types (floodplain and woodland). Individuals with home ranges that were closer together and/or had similar vegetation structures (measured using LiDAR) ate more similar diets, supporting the prediction that heterogeneous resource distribution promotes individual differentiation. Individuals in good nutritional condition had significantly narrower diets (fewer plant taxa), searched their home ranges more intensively (intensity-of-use index), and had higher-quality diets (percent digestible protein) than those in poor condition, supporting the prediction that animals with greater endogenous reserves are more specialized because they can invest time in searching for nutritious foods. Our results support predictions from optimal foraging theory about the energetic basis of individual specialization and provide a potentially generalizable framework for understanding how individual niche width is governed by animal behavior and physiology in heterogeneous landscapes.</p>
Data from: DNA metabarcoding illuminates dietary niche partitioning by African large herbivores
Niche partitioning facilitates species coexistence in a world of limited resources, thereby enriching biodiversity. For decades, biologists have sought to understand how diverse assemblages of large mammalian herbivores (LMH) partition food resources. Several complementary mechanisms have been identified, including differential consumption of grasses versus nongrasses and spatiotemporal stratification in use of different parts of the same plant. However, the extent to which LMH partition food-plant species is largely unknown because comprehensive species-level identification is prohibitively difficult with traditional methods. We used DNA metabarcoding to quantify diet breadth, composition, and overlap for seven abundant LMH species (six wild, one domestic) in semiarid African savanna. These species ranged from almost-exclusive grazers to almost-exclusive browsers: Grass consumption inferred from mean sequence relative read abundance (RRA) ranged from >99% (plains zebra) to <1% (dik-dik). Grass RRA was highly correlated with isotopic estimates of % grass consumption, indicating that RRA conveys reliable quantitative information about consumption. Dietary overlap was greatest between species that were similar in body size and proportional grass consumption. Nonetheless, diet composition differed between all species—even pairs of grazers matched in size, digestive physiology, and location—and dietary similarity was sometimes greater across grazing and browsing guilds than within them. Such taxonomically fine-grained diet partitioning suggests that coarse trophic categorizations may generate misleading conclusions about competition and coexistence in LMH assemblages, and that LMH diversity may be more tightly linked to plant diversity than is currently recognized.
Effects of large herbivores on fire regimes and wildfire mitigation
<p>1. Abandonment of agricultural land is widespread in many parts of the world, leading to shrub and tree encroachment. The increase of flammable plant biomass, i.e. fuel load, increases the risk and intensity of wildfires. Fuel reduction by herbivores is a promising management strategy to avoid fuel build-up and mitigate wildfires. However, their effectiveness in mitigating wildfire damage may depend on a range of factors, including herbivore type, population density and feeding patterns.<br> <br> 2. Here we review the evidence on whether management with herbivores can reduce fuel load and mitigate wildfires, and if so, how to identify suitable management that can achieve fire mitigation objectives while providing other ecosystem services. We systematically reviewed studies that investigated links between herbivores, fire hazard, fire frequency and fire damage.<br> <br> 3. We found that in general, herbivores reduce fuel load most effectively when they are mixed-feeders, when grazing and browsing herbivores are combined, and when herbivore food preferences match the local vegetation. In some cases, the combination of herbivory with other management strategies, such as mechanical clearing, is necessary to reduce wildfire damage.<br> <br> 4. We conclude that herbivores have the capacity to mitigate wildfire damage, and we provide guidance for grazing management for wildfire mitigation strategies. As areas undergoing land abandonment are particularly prone to wildfires, the maintenance or promotion of grazing by domestic or wild herbivores is a promising tool to reduce wildfire risk in a cost-effective way, while also providing other ecosystem services. Relevant land-use policies, including fire-suppression policies, agricultural and forest(ry) policies could incentivise the use of herbivores for better wildfire prevention.</p>
Soil engineering by ants facilitates plant compensation for large herbivore removal of aboveground biomass
<p>The interplay between top-down and bottom-up processes determines ecosystem productivity. Yet, the factors that mediate the balance between these opposing forces remain poorly understood. Furthering this challenge, complex and often cryptic factors like ecosystem engineering and trait-mediated interactions may play major roles in mediating the outcomes of top-down and bottom-up interactions. In semi-arid grasslands of northeastern China, we conducted a large-scale, three-year experiment to evaluate how soil engineering by ants and plasticity in plants independently and jointly influenced the top-down effects of grazing by a ubiquitous herbivore (cattle) on aboveground standing biomass of the dominant perennial grass, <i><span>Leymus chinensis</span></i>. Herbivory had strong top-down effects, reducing <i><span>L. chinensis</span></i> AB by 25% relative to baseline levels without cattle or ants. In contrast, soil engineering by ants facilitated weak bottom-up effects in the absence of herbivory. However, in the presence of herbivory, soil engineering effects were strong enough to fully offset herbivore removal of aboveground biomass. This outcome was mediated by <i><span>L. chinensis</span></i>'s plasticity in reallocating growth from below- to aboveground biomass, a result linked to additive effects of engineers and herbivores increasing soil N availability and engineering effects improving soil structure. Soil engineering increased soil N by 12%, promoting aboveground biomass. Herbivores increased soil N by 13% via defecation, but this increase failed to offset their reductions in aboveground biomass in isolation. However, when combined, engineers and herbivores increased soil N by 26% and engineers improved soil bulk density, facilitating <i><span>L. chinensis</span></i> to shift resource allocations from below- to aboveground biomass sufficiently to fully offset herbivore suppression of aboveground biomass. Our results demonstrate that soil engineering and trait-mediated effects of plant plasticity can strongly mediate the outcome of top-down and bottom-up interactions. These cryptic but perhaps ubiquitous processes may help to explain the long-debated phenomenon of plant compensatory responses to large grazers. </p>
Data from: Context-dependent effects of shifting large herbivore assemblages on plant structure and diversity
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Data from: A novel mechanism for grazing lawn formation: large herbivore-induced modification of the plant-soil water balance
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Through the taste buds of a large herbivore: foodscape modeling contributes to an understanding of forage selection processes
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.