2024-09-19 ブラウン大学
<関連情報>
- https://www.brown.edu/news/2024-09-19/foraging
- https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.240136
イエローストーン国立公園における大型哺乳類草食動物の季節的な食性転換の程度は、体の大きさによって調節される Body size modulates the extent of seasonal diet switching by large mammalian herbivores in Yellowstone National Park
Bethan L. Littleford-Colquhoun,Chris Geremia,Lauren M. McGarvey,Jerod A. Merkle,Hannah K. Hoff,Heidi Anderson,Carlisle R. Segal,Rebecca Y. Kartzinel,Ian J. Maywar,Natalie Nantais,Camela MooreandTyler R. Kartzinel
Royal Society Open Science Published:11 September 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240136
Abstract
Prevailing theories about animal foraging behaviours and the food webs they occupy offer divergent predictions about whether seasonally limited food availability promotes dietary diversification or specialization. Emphasis on how animals compete for food predominates in work on the foraging ecology of large mammalian herbivores, whereas emphasis on how the diversity of available foods generally constrains dietary opportunity predominates work on entire food webs. Reconciling predictions about what promotes dietary diversification is challenging because species’ different body sizes and mobilities modulate how they seek and compete for resources—the mechanistic bases of common predictions may not pertain to all species equally. We evaluated predictions about five large-herbivore species that differ in body size and mobility in Yellowstone National Park using GPS tracking and dietary DNA. The data illuminated remarkably strong and significant correlations between body size and five key indicators of diet seasonality (R2 = 0.71–0.80). Compared to smaller species, bison and elk showed muted diet seasonality and maintained access to more unique foods when winter conditions constrained food availability. Evidence from GPS collars revealed size-based differences in species’ seasonal movements and habitat-use patterns, suggesting that better accounting for the allometry of foraging behaviours may help reconcile disparate ideas about the ecological drivers of seasonal diet switching.
