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38 results for “forage quality”
Evaluating the summer landscapes of predation risk and forage quality for elk (Cervus canadensis)
<p>These data accompany the paper "Evaluating the summer landscapes of predation risk and forage quality for elk (<em>Cervus canadensis</em>)", and are the unscaled version of the second- and third-order resource selection data sets for elk. Each data set consists of 6 columns: elkid (a unique identifier for every individual), used (an indicator: 0 = available sample, 1 = used sample), year, de (modeled digestible energy), lion (predicted relative probability of selection for mountain lions) and wolf (predicted relative probability of selection for wolves).</p>
Data from: Productive foraging grounds enhance maternal condition and offspring quality in a capital breeding species
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Fire and forage quality: post-fire regrowth quality and pyric herbivory in subtropical grasslands of Nepal
<p>Indiscriminate fire is rampant throughout subtropical South and Southeast Asian grasslands. However, very little is known about the role of fire and pyric herbivory on the functioning of highly productive subtropical monsoon grasslands lying within Cwa-climatic region. We collected grass samples from 60 m x 60 m plots and determined vegetation physical and chemical properties at regular 30-day intervals from April to July 2020, starting from 30 days after fire to assess post-fire regrowth forage quality. We counted pellet groups for the same four months from 2 m x 2 m quadrats that were permanently marked with pegs along the diagonal of each 60 m x 60 m plot to estimate grazing intensity to the progression of post-fire regrowth. We observed strong and significant reductions in crude protein (mean value 9.1 to 4.1 [55% decrease]) and phosphorus (mean value 0.2 to 0.11 [45% decrease]) in forage collected during different time intervals i.e., from 30 days to 120 days after fire. Mesofaunal deer utilised the burned areas extensively for a short period, <i>i.e</i>., up to two months after fire when the burned areas contained short grasses with a higher level of crude protein and phosphorus. Grazing intensity of chital (<i>Axis axis</i>) to post-fire regrowth differed significantly over time since fire, with higher intensity of use at 30 days after fire. Grazing intensity of swamp deer (<i>Rucervus duvaucelii</i>) did not differ significantly until 90 days after fire, however, decreased significantly after 90 days since fire. Large-scale indiscriminate single event fires thus may not fulfil nutritional requirements of all species in mesofaunal deer community in these subtropical monsoon grasslands. We recommend for a spatio-temporal manipulation of fire to reinforce grazing feedback and to yield for the longest possible period a reasonably good food supply for the conservation of mesofaunal deer.</p>
Patch quality and habitat fragmentation shape the foraging patterns of a specialist folivore
<p><span>Research on use of foraging patches has focused on why herbivores visit or quit patches, yet little is known about visits to patches over time. Food quality, as reflected by higher nutritional quality and lower plant defences, and physical patch characteristics, which offer protection from predators and weather, affect patch use and hence should influence their revisitation. Due to the potentially high costs of moving between patches, fragmented habitats are predicted to complicate foraging decisions of many animals. We aimed to determine how food quality, shelter availability and habitat fragmentation influence tree reuse by a specialist folivore, the koala, in a fragmented agricultural landscape. We GPS- tracked 23 koalas in northern New South Wales, Australia and collated number of revisits, average residence time, and average time-to-return to each tree. We measured tree characteristics including food quality (foliar nitrogen and toxic formylated phloroglucinol compounds, FPCs concentrations), tree size and tree connectedness. We also modelled the costs of locomotion between trees. Koalas re-visited isolated trees with high leaf nitrogen disproportionately often. They spent longer time in trees with high leaf nitrogen, and in large trees used for shelter. They took longer to return to trees with low leaf nitrogen. Tree connectivity reduced travel costs between patches, being either individual or groups of trees. FPC levels had no detectable effect on patch revisitation. We conclude that food quality and shelter drive koala tree re-visits. Scattered, isolated trees with nutrient-rich leaves are valuable resource patches for koalas despite movement costs to reach them. </span></p>
Season-dependent impact of forage quality on stress in Alpine chamois
<p>Chronically heightened stress levels in wildlife species may have detrimental effects on individual life history traits, for example through the increased likelihood of disease, parasitic infections, and overall reduced fitness. Understanding the drivers of stress may thus have great potential for informing wildlife conservation. Although the role of climate and individual status is well studied in stress ecology, the impact of related stressors such as dietary quality is of increasing interest to wildlife research and conservation. In this study, fecal cortisol metabolites (FCMs) in Alpine chamois <em>Rupicapra r. rupicapra,</em> used as bioindicators of stress, and their relationship with forage quality – measured as the percentage of fecal crude protein (CP) – were investigated. Data collection took place in 2011 and 2012 in the Gran Paradiso National Park (Western Italian Alps), on 22 individually marked adult males. The relationship between FCMs and CPs was analyzed through linear models and seperated between winter and summer months, accounting for the effect of potentially confounding exogenous and endogenous variables. After AICc-based model selection, we found that forage quality was negatively related to FCM levels in Alpine chamois during the summer months, meaning that higher quality forage was associated with the decreased expression of stress hormones. However, during the winter months, we did not find a significant relationship, potentially as a result of forage quality being ubiquitously poor. Although the mechanisms through which dietary variations impact FCM concentrations in wildlife populations are largely unknown, the occurrence of significant relationships between forage quality and stress levels supports potentially important implications for the long-term effect of climatic changes on the fitness of wildlife populations.</p>
Effects of litter quality on foraging behaviour and demographic parameters in Folsomia candida (Collembola)
<p><span>Litter quality has long been associated with demographic parameters of Collembola populations. However, little is known about the capacity of Collembola to perceive and seek better litter quality. To address this gap, three complementary laboratory experiments were carried out with the Collembola <em>Folsomia candida</em>. First, populations were fed on three different types of leaf litters (<em>Quercus pubescens, Acer opalus </em>and<em> Prunus avium</em>) and a control (agar-agar-brewer's yeast mixture) for six weeks to assess their impacts on demography (reproduction rate and population size). Second, the body length of individuals differentially fed with the same four types of resources was measured to assess a functional trait that can potentially affect movement parameters such as prospected area or foraging speed. Third, <em>F. candida</em> isolated individuals were exposed to the same litter quality gradient and placed at increasing distances from the litter (from 1 to 5 cm). For ten minutes, their foraging behaviours were recorded which included their prospected area, foraging speed, perception distance and success in reaching the litter (foraging success). As expected, low-quality litter (i.e., <em>Q. pubescens</em>) contributed to low population growth compared to the control treatment and the high-quality litters (<em>P. avium </em>and<em> A. opalus</em>). In the third experiment, the probability of finding the resource was negatively correlated to the distance but was unrelated to the litter quality and the Collembola body length. When resource was perceived, F. candida was able to switch from non-directional to directional movements, with a large variability in the perception distance from a few millimeters to several centimeters. Taken together, our results indicate that litter quality plays a relevant role on Collembola demographic parameters once the population settles on litter patch, but not on foraging behaviour to select high-quality resources.<br></span></p>
Patch quality and habitat fragmentation shape the foraging patterns of a specialist folivore
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Fire and forage quality: post-fire regrowth quality and pyric herbivory in subtropical grasslands of Nepal
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Linking leaf economic traits with forage quality across temperate grasslands under ambient and drought conditions
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Differential effects of foraging strategies on carotenoid-derived plumage color and individual quality in stripe-tailed yellow finches
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Season-dependent impact of forage quality on stress in Alpine chamois
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Data from: The interplay of satiation and temptation affects cleaner fish foraging behavior and service quality
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Association of prey quality with environmental odors in the foraging behavior of Pardosa milvina
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Effects of litter quality on foraging behaviour and demographic parameters in Folsomia candida (Collembola)
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Plant communities, forage quality, and diet composition on summer ranges of mule deer (2017–2019), Wyoming, USA
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Proportion of annual bromes in cattle diet, with annual brome phenology, forage quality, and forage availability, measured at two mixedgrass prairie study sites, USA
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Data from: Extreme precipitation variability, forage quality and large herbivore diet selection in arid environments
Nutritional ecology forms the interface between environmental variability and large herbivore behaviour, life history characteristics, and population dynamics. Forage conditions in arid and semi-arid regions are driven by unpredictable spatial and temporal patterns in rainfall. Diet selection by herbivores should be directed towards overcoming the most pressing nutritional limitation (i.e. energy, protein [nitrogen, N], moisture) within the constraints imposed by temporal and spatial variability in forage conditions. We investigated the influence of precipitation-induced shifts in forage nutritional quality and subsequent large herbivore responses across widely varying precipitation conditions in an arid environment. Specifically, we assessed seasonal changes in diet breadth and forage selection of adult female desert bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis mexicana in relation to potential nutritional limitations in forage N, moisture and energy content (as proxied by dry matter digestibility, DMD). Succulents were consistently high in moisture but low in N and grasses were low in N and moisture until the wet period. Nitrogen and moisture content of shrubs and forbs varied among seasons and climatic periods, whereas trees had consistently high N and moderate moisture levels. Shrubs, trees and succulents composed most of the seasonal sheep diets but had little variation in DMD. Across all seasons during drought and during summer with average precipitation, forages selected by sheep were higher in N and moisture than that of available forage. Differences in DMD between sheep diets and available forage were minor. Diet breadth was lowest during drought and increased with precipitation, reflecting a reliance on few key forage species during drought. Overall, forage selection was more strongly associated with N and moisture content than energy content. Our study demonstrates that unlike north-temperate ungulates which are generally reported to be energy-limited, N and moisture may be more nutritionally limiting for desert ungulates than digestible energy.
Data from: Elevated CO2 induces substantial and persistent declines in forage quality irrespective of warming in mixedgrass prairie
Increasing atmospheric [CO2] and temperature are expected to affect the productivity, species composition, biogeochemistry, and therefore the quantity and quality of forage available to herbivores in rangeland ecosystems. Both elevated CO2 (eCO2) and warming affect plant tissue chemistry through multiple direct and indirect pathways, such that the cumulative outcomes of these effects are difficult to predict. Here, we report on a 7-year study examining effects of CO2 enrichment (to 600 ppm) and infrared warming (+1.5°C day/3°C night) under realistic field conditions on forage quality and quantity in a semiarid, mixedgrass prairie. For the 3 dominant forage grasses, warming effects on in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and tissue [N] were detected only in certain years, varied from negative to positive, and were relatively minor. In contrast, eCO2 substantially reduced IVDMD (2 most abundant grasses) and [N] (all 3 dominant grass species) in most years, except the two wettest years. Furthermore, eCO2 reduced IVDMD and [N] independent of warming effects. Reduced IVDMD with eCO2 was related both to reduced [N] and increased acid detergent fiber (ADF) content of grass tissues. For the 6 most abundant forage species (representing 96% of total forage production), combined warming+eCO2 increased forage production by 38% and reduced forage [N] by 13% relative to ambient climate. Although the absolute magnitude of the decline in IVDMD and [N] due to combined warming+eCO2 may seem small (e.g. from 63.3 to 61.1% IVDMD and 1.25 to 1.04% [N] for Pascopyrum smithii), such shifts could have substantial consequences for the rate at which ruminants gain weight during the primary growing season in the largest remaining rangeland ecosystem in North America. With forage production increases, declining forage quality could potentially be mitigated by adaptively increasing stocking rates, and through management such as prescribed burning, fertilization at low rates, and legume interseeding to enhance forage quality.
Data from: The utility of normalized difference vegetation index for predicting African buffalo forage quality
Many studies of mammalian herbivores have employed remotely sensed vegetation greenness, in the form of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as a proxy for forage quality. The assumption that reflected greenness represents forage quality often goes untested, and limited data exist on the relationships between remotely sensed and traditional forage nutrient indicators. We provide the first study connecting NDVI and forage nutrient indicators within a free-ranging African herbivore ecosystem. We examined the relationships between fecal nutrient levels (nitrogen and phosphorus), forage nutrient levels, body condition, and NDVI for African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) in a South African savanna ecosystem over a 2-year period (2001 and 2002). We used an information-theoretic approach to rank models of fecal nitrogen (Nf) and phosphorus (Pf) as functions of geology, season, and NDVI in each year separately. For each year, the highest ranked models for Nf accounted for 61% and 65% of the observed variance, and these models included geology, season, and NDVI. The top-ranked model for Pf in 2001, although capturing 54% of the variability, did not include NDVI. In 2002, we could not identify a top ranking model for phosphorus (i.e., all models were within 2 AICc of each other). Body condition was most highly correlated (equation image; P ≤ 0.001) with NDVI at a 1 month time lag and with Nf at a 3 months time lag (equation image; P ≤ 0.001), but was not significantly correlated with Pf. Our findings suggest that NDVI can be used to index nitrogen content of forage and is correlated with improved body condition in African buffalo. Thus, NDVI provides a useful means to assess forage quality where crude protein is a limiting resource. We found that NDVI accounted for more than a seasonal effect, and in a system where standing biomass may be high but of low quality, understanding available nutrients is useful for management.
Evaluation of forage quality in a pea breeding program using a hyperspectral sensing system
<p>The dataset includes the leaf reflectance spectra collected using a spectroradiometer and the associated biomass quality traits from laboratory-based near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) analysis from pea breeding trials. The data is used for analysis in the publication "Evaluation of Forage Quality in a Pea Breeding Program Using a Hyperspectral Sensing System".</p>
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Allen Brain Atlas
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