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20 results for “foraging patch”
Patch-burn grazing impacts forage resources in subtropical humid grazinglands
Subtropical humid grazing lands represent a large global land use and are important for livestock production, as well as supplying multiple ecosystem services. Patch-burn grazing (PBG) management is applied in temperate grazing lands to enhance environmental and economic sustainability; however, this management system has not been widely tested in subtropical humid grazing lands. The objective of this study was to determine how PBG affected forage resources, in comparison with the business-as usual full-burn (FB) management in both intensively managed pastures (IMP) and seminative (SN) pastures in subtropical humid grazing lands. We hypothesized that PBG management would create patch contrasts in forage quantity and nutritive value in both IMP and SN pastures, with a greater effect in SN pastures. A randomized block design experiment was established in 2017 with 16 pastures (16 ha each), 8 each in IMP and SN at Archbold Biological Station’s Buck Island Ranch in Florida. PBG management employed on IMP and SN resulted in creation of patch contrast in forage nutritive value and biomass metrics, and recent fire increased forage nutritive value. Residual standing biomass was significantly lower in burned patches of each year, creating heterogeneity within both pasture types under PBG. PBG increased digestible forage production in SN but not IMP pastures. These results suggest that PBG may be a useful management tool for enhancing forage nutritive value and creating patch contrast in both SN and IMP, but PBG does not necessarily increase production relative to FB management. The annual increase in tissue quality and digestible forage production in a PBG system as opposed to once every 3 yr in an FB system is an important consideration for ranchers. Economic impacts of PBG and FB management in the two different pasture types are discussed, and we compare and contrast results from subtropical humid grazing lands with continental temperate grazing lands.
multiple food patch collective foraging experiments
<p>This dataset contains .mp4 video files of experimental recordings for the following publication: https://doi.org/10.1101/744649.</p> <p>The .mp4 files (100x sped up) are contained within the zipped folder, and the .csv file contains the metadata for the dataset. </p> <ul> <li><strong>strains</strong> : DA609 and N2</li> <li><strong>timestamp</strong> : from 20170615 to 20170626</li> <li><strong>strain_description</strong> : DA609: npr-1(ad609)X. N2: lab reference strain.</li> <li><strong>sex</strong> : hermaphrodite</li> <li><strong>stage</strong> : adult</li> <li><strong>number_worms: </strong>40</li> <li><strong>media</strong> : NGM agar low peptone</li> <li><strong>arena</strong> : <ul> <li><strong>style</strong> : petri</li> <li><strong>size</strong> : 35 mm</li> </ul> </li> <li><strong>food</strong> : OP50, diluted OD = 0.75, freshly seeded</li> <li><strong>who</strong> : S. Serena Ding</li> <li><strong>protocol</strong> : Method in Ding, Schumacher et al. (2019) <a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.43318">https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.43318</a>. Alternatively, visit dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.vybe7sn for a step-by-step protocol.</li> <li><strong>lab</strong> : <ul> <li><strong>name</strong> : Behavioural Genomics</li> <li><strong>location</strong> : London, United Kingdom</li> </ul> </li> <li><strong>days_of_adulthood</strong> : 1</li> <li><strong>total time (s)</strong> : 3600 per file</li> <li><strong>playback speed: </strong>100x</li> </ul>
Data from: Prey encounters and spatial memory influence use of foraging patches in a marine central place forager
<p class="MsoNormal">Given the patchiness and long-term predictability of marine resources, memory of high-quality foraging grounds is expected to provide fitness advantages for central place foragers. However, it remains challenging to characterise how marine predators integrate memory with recent prey encounters to adjust fine-scale movement and use of foraging patches. Here, we used two months of movement data from harbour seals (<em>Phoca vitulina</em>) to quantify the repeatability in foraging patches as a proxy for memory. We then integrated these data into analyses of fine-scale movement and underwater behaviour to test how both spatial memory and prey encounter rates influenced the seals' Area Restricted Search (ARS) behaviour. Specifically, we used one month's GPS data from 29 individuals to build spatial memory maps of searched areas, and archived accelerometry data from a subset of five individuals to detect prey catch attempts, a proxy for prey encounters. Individuals were highly consistent in the areas they visited over two consecutive months. Hidden Markov Models showed that both spatial memory and prey encounters increased the probability of seals initiating ARS. These results provide evidence that predators use memory to adjust their fine scale movement and this ability should be accounted for in movement models.</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>
Trees out-forage understorey shrubs for nitrogen patches in a subarctic mountain birch forest
<p>Nitrogen (N), acquired by roots and mycorrhizal fungi and supplied to plant foliage, is a growth-limiting nutrient at the subarctic treeline. Due to this limitation, interspecific competition and acquisition of N is an important control on plant community composition and distribution. The ability of trees and shrubs to access N shapes community dynamics at this ecotone undergoing species range shifts and changes in primary productivity driven by climate change. Using <sup>15</sup>N soil labelling, we investigate the fate of soil inorganic N, and spatial distances over which trees and understorey shrubs access soil N, in a treeline forest. <sup>15</sup>N was injected into soil rooting zones, and foliar samples were collected from trees between 1 and 50 m away and understorey shrubs between 0.5 and 11 m away from labelled soil. The <sup>15</sup>N label was found in mountain birch trees up to 5 m and in understorey shrubs up to 2 m away from labelled soil. We estimate that 1.27% of pulse-derived N was found in foliage of birch trees, compared to 1.16% in the understorey. However, mountain birch trees contributed only 31% of ecosystem leaf area index (LAI), thus there was a disproportionate allocation of added label to the birch canopy compared with its contribution to ecosystem LAI. The difference in root and mycorrhizal exploration distances and community N partitioning between mountain birch trees and understorey shrubs may confer competitive advantage to trees, which may alter plant community structures within these forests. This is particularly important considering predicted climate-driven tree and tall shrub expansion in subarctic regions, with likely consequences for ecosystem N and carbon (C) cycling, as well as for community composition and biodiversity.</p>
Patch quality and habitat fragmentation shape the foraging patterns of a specialist folivore
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Data from: Prey encounters and spatial memory influence use of foraging patches in a marine central place forager
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Trees out-forage understorey shrubs for nitrogen patches in a subarctic mountain birch forest
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Bats increased foraging activity at experimental prey patches near hibernacula
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Data from: Dominance, gender, and season influence food patch use in a group-living, solitary foraging canid
In patchy environments, foragers adopt different strategies to acquire resources depending on their internal state and external physical and social environment: this has important fitness consequences. Linking individual variation in patch use to tangible characteristics is key to understand many higher-level ecological processes. We studied patch use by red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in the city of Bristol, UK. We placed camera traps in gardens where householders provisioned foxes (patches) to investigate whether 1) foxes discriminated between patches based on food availability, quantified as provisioning frequency (predictability) and the energy value of provisioned food; and 2) individual patch use varied with dominance, gender, and season. Increased frequency of provisioning encouraged more foxes to visit and to stay longer in patches. All foxes visited the most predictable patches first each day, but females were more selective and generally more efficient foragers than males. Females increased foraging effort during cub rearing, whereas males reduced patch use in the dispersal and mating season. Dominants and subordinates shared patches spatiotemporally, possibly facilitated by relatedness and familiarity between group members. However, dominants visited more food patches on their territory, spent more time in predictable patches and fed earlier than subordinates. Subordinates may compensate for competition by visiting patches of lower quality or outside their territory, which is inefficient and risky. Our results demonstrate gender differences in behavioral motivation, show how subordinates forego foraging efficiency to mitigate intra-group competition and reveal how human provisioning influences fox space use in urban areas.
Data from: How do foragers decide when to leave a patch? A test of alternative models under natural and experimental conditions
1. A forager's optimal patch-departure time can be predicted by the prescient marginal value theorem (pMVT), which assumes they have perfect knowledge of the environment, or by approaches such as Bayesian-updating and learning rules, which avoid this assumption by allowing foragers to use recent experiences to inform their decisions. 2. In understanding and predicting broader scale ecological patterns, individual-level mechanisms, such as patch-departure decisions, need to be fully elucidated. Unfortunately, there are few empirical studies that compare the performance of patch-departure models that assume perfect knowledge with those that do not, resulting in a limited understanding of how foragers decide when to leave a patch. 3. We tested the patch-departure rules predicted by fixed-rule, pMVT, Bayesian-updating and learning models against one another, using patch residency times recorded from 54 chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) across two groups in natural (n = 6,594 patch visits) and field-experimental (n = 8,569) conditions. 4. We found greater support in the experiment for the model based on Bayesian-updating rules, but greater support for the model based on the pMVT in natural foraging conditions. This suggests that foragers may place more importance on recent experiences in predictable environments, like our experiment, where these experiences provide more reliable information about future opportunities.5. Furthermore, the effect of a single recent foraging experience on patch residency times was uniformly weak across both conditions. This suggests that foragers' perception of their environment may incorporate many previous experiences, thus approximating the perfect knowledge assumed by the pMVT. Foragers may, therefore, optimise their patch-departure decisions in line with the pMVT through the adoption of rules similar to those predicted by Bayesian-updating.
Data from: Plastic responses of belowground foraging traits to soil phosphorus-rich patches across 17 coexisting AM tree species in a subtropical forest
<p><span>1. </span><span>Belowground plastic responses to soil nutrient "hot-spots" form a key nutrient foraging strategy of plants coexisting in natural ecosystems. However, it is unclear how plant species differ in these belowground plastic responses and how they co-vary.</span></p> <p><span>2. </span><span>Plastic responses to soil phosphorus (P)-rich patches of absorptive root, mycorrhizal, and exudation traits of 17 co-existing arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) tree species in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest were investigated using a root bag method.</span></p> <p><span>3. </span><span>There was considerable variation and heterogeneity in species-specific responses to P-rich patches. Negative log response ratios usually occurred for high-cost traits and positive log response ratios for low-cost traits. There were tradeoffs in the plastic responses between root acid phosphatase activity and extraradical hyphal length, which were unaffected by phylogeny, and between root acid phosphatase activity and specific root length. Thicker-rooted species responded to P-rich patches more through root exudation plasticity than mycorrhizal plasticity. Thinner-rooted species relied more on mycorrhizal plasticity.</span></p> <p><span>4. </span><em><span>Synthesis</span></em><span>. Our results revealed diverse P foraging strategies comprising different combinations of plastic adjustments in absorptive root, mycorrhizal, and exudation traits among coexisting AM tree species, which suggest the potential for complementary exploitation of different soil P sources.</span></p>
Data from: Dominance, gender, and season influence food patch use in a group-living, solitary foraging canid
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Data from: How do foragers decide when to leave a patch? A test of alternative models under natural and experimental conditions
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Data from: Plastic responses of belowground foraging traits to soil phosphorus-rich patches across 17 coexisting AM tree species in a subtropical forest
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Data from: Taking movement data to new depths: Inferring prey availability and patch profitability from seabird foraging behavior
Detailed information acquired using tracking technology has the potential to provide accurate pictures of the types of movements and behaviors performed by animals. To date, such data have not been widely exploited to provide inferred information about the foraging habitat. We collected data using multiple sensors (GPS, time depth recorders, and accelerometers) from two species of diving seabirds, razorbills (Alca torda, N = 5, from Fair Isle, UK) and common guillemots (Uria aalge, N = 2 from Fair Isle and N = 2 from Colonsay, UK). We used a clustering algorithm to identify pursuit and catching events and the time spent pursuing and catching underwater, which we then used as indicators for inferring prey encounters throughout the water column and responses to changes in prey availability of the areas visited at two levels: individual dives and groups of dives. For each individual dive (N = 661 for guillemots, 6214 for razorbills), we modeled the number of pursuit and catching events, in relation to dive depth, duration, and type of dive performed (benthic vs. pelagic). For groups of dives (N = 58 for guillemots, 156 for razorbills), we modeled the total time spent pursuing and catching in relation to time spent underwater. Razorbills performed only pelagic dives, most likely exploiting prey available at shallow depths as indicated by the vertical distribution of pursuit and catching events. In contrast, guillemots were more flexible in their behavior, switching between benthic and pelagic dives. Capture attempt rates indicated that they were exploiting deep prey aggregations. The study highlights how novel analysis of movement data can give new insights into how animals exploit food patches, offering a unique opportunity to comprehend the behavioral ecology behind different movement patterns and understand how animals might respond to changes in prey distributions.
Data from: The spatial distribution of foragers and food patches can influence antipredator vigilance
Antipredator vigilance is a major component of defenses against predators for many prey species. For group foragers, such vigilance is predicted by models to decrease with group size reflecting better predator detection ability and risk dilution in larger groups. Influential vigilance models for group foragers have made simplifying and often quite restrictive assumptions. Prey species, for instance, are expected to search for resources in groups of fixed sizes although frequent changes in group sizes often occur while foraging. Groups of prey in the same area are also assumed to be attacked independently, but predators could sequentially target several local groups after a failed attempt. I propose a framework in which prey animals can form groups by joining feeding neighbors and also adjust their vigilance in these groups of varying sizes. Predators can attack one of the many groups that occur in the same area and can also target groups of specific sizes. I used a genetic algorithm approach to simultaneously tackle joining and vigilance choices by prey individuals. I show that joining tendencies and the effect of group size on vigilance can vary with forager population size, the spatial distribution of resources, and predator attack tactics. The modeling framework adopted here generates several novel predictions about vigilance and joining tendencies for group foragers, and highlights the importance of considering the availability and vulnerability of prey groups in the same habitat when predicting antipredator vigilance.
Data from: Familiarity affects social network structure and discovery of prey patch locations in foraging stickleback shoals
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Data from: The spatial distribution of foragers and food patches can influence antipredator vigilance
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Data from: Taking movement data to new depths: Inferring prey availability and patch profitability from seabird foraging behavior
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Allen Brain Atlas
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
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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
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