鹿对野火的饮食反应:最佳的食,个体专业化,还是机会主义?
Carly Q White1, Joshua P Bush2, Benjamin N Sacks1,3
1Mammalian Ecology and Conservation Unit of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA.
Molecular ecology
|October 31, 2023
概括
研究了野火对黑尾鹿 (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) 的影响. 鹿在火灾后的息地使用和饮食范围发生了变化,随着植物社区的变化,它们以一般主义者的方式寻找食物.
科学领域:
- 生态生态学 生态生态学
- 野生动物生物学 野生动物生物学
- 火灾生态学 火灾生态学
背景情况:
- 气候变化加剧了干旱地区野火的影响,需要了解社区应对措施.
- 加利福尼亚州北部发生的大型野火,在正在进行的研究项目中,为研究黑尾鹿的反应提供了机会.
研究的目的:
- 调查黑尾鹿如何利用烧毁和未烧毁的息地,并在野火发生之前,之后和恢复期间改变他们的饮食.
- 将鹿的食幅度变化与最佳食理论,利基变异假设和通用食预期的预测进行比较.
主要方法:
- 便颗粒的计数被用来评估鹿在不同时间段内在被烧毁和未被烧毁的区域的空间使用情况.
- 用便样本的元编码分析来确定鹿的饮食组成和多样性.
- 数据是在火灾前收集的,火灾后立即收集,并在随后的三年内恢复植物社区.
主要成果:
- 鹿在火灾发生后立即显著减少了被烧毁地点的使用,并增加了未被烧毁地点的使用,在以后的几年中逐渐回归.
- 饮食多样性在火灾前类似,但在火灾后被烧毁的地点明显较低,以树 (Quercus spp.) 为主.
- 在康复年份,食多样性在烧伤地点增加,包括更多的草本植物,比对照地点更高.
结论:
- 黑尾鹿表现出普遍的食行为,饮食的宽度变化与火灾引起的植物社区多样性转变直接并行.
- 这些发现与最佳食和利基变异假设形成鲜明对比,这表明鹿根据火灾后的即时资源可用性机会地调整他们的饮食.
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