4.7 Article

Grazing intensity drives a trophic shift in the diet of common alpine birds

期刊

出版社

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2023.108418

关键词

Large mammals; Herbivory; Trophic interactions; Isotopic ecology; Alpine meadows; Grassland ecosystems

向作者/读者索取更多资源

Large mammalian herbivores (LMH) have had a profound influence on landscapes and wildlife in alpine and mountain grasslands in France. The grazing intensity of LMH affects the diet of insectivorous birds, shifting their food source from herbivorous arthropods to other groups such as predators and detritivores. This study highlights the trophic link between LMH and insectivorous birds in open landscapes, providing insights for landscape management and bird conservation.
Large mammalian herbivores (LMH) shape vertebrate communities and structure food webs in many terrestrial ecosystems. However, the mechanisms that underlie the effects of LMH on other vertebrates are poorly under-stood. In France, domestic LMH have grazed alpine and mountain grasslands for thousands of years, profoundly influencing landscapes and wildlife. As LMH modify habitat structure, favour coprophagous insects and compete with herbivorous insects, the diet of insectivorous alpine birds may be deeply influenced by LMH grazing in-tensity. To investigate this, we sampled common insectivorous birds faeces (water pipit Anthus spinoletta and wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe) in sites characterized by different levels of grazing intensity by domestic and wild herbivores, in the open landscapes of the southern French Alps and the western Pyrenees. We used isotopic discrimination based on nitrogen stable isotope ratios as an indicator of the trophic level of the arthropods found in bird faeces. From isotopic ratios, we found that bird diets shift from mainly herbivorous arthropods at sites of low grazing intensity, to one mainly composed of other groups, such as predatory, detritivorous or coprophagous arthropods, at sites of higher grazing intensity. This result highlights the strong trophic link between LMH and insectivorous birds in open landscapes, contributing to a better understanding of interactions between domestic grazing, an activity that has historically modelled European landscapes, and biodiversity, with particular rele-vance for landscape management and bird conservation.

作者

我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。

评论

主要评分

4.7
评分不足

次要评分

新颖性
-
重要性
-
科学严谨性
-
评价这篇论文

推荐

暂无数据
暂无数据