Work

Top‐down effects of foraging decisions on local, landscape and regional biodiversity of resources (DivGUD)

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Foraging by consumers acts as a biotic filtering mechanism for biodiversity at the trophic level of resources. Variation in foraging behaviour has cascading effects on abundance, diversity, and functional trait composition of the community of resource species. Here we propose diversity at giving-up density (DivGUD), i.e. when foragers quit exploiting a patch, as a novel concept and simple measure quantifying cascading effects at multiple spatial scales. In experimental landscapes with an assemblage of plant seeds, patch residency of wild rodents decreased local α-DivGUD (via elevated mortality of species with large seeds) and regional γ-DivGUD, while dissimilarity among patches in a landscape (ß-DivGUD) increased. By linking theories of adaptive foraging behaviour with community ecology, DivGUD allows to investigate cascading indirect predation effects, e.g. the ecology-of-fear framework, feedbacks between functional trait composition of resource species and consumer communities, and effects of inter-individual differences among foragers on the biodiversity of resource communities.

Source: Ecology Letters

DOI: 10.1111/ele.13901

Authors: Jana A. Eccard, Clara Mendes Ferreira, Andres Peredo Arce, Melanie Dammhahn

Institutions: University of Potsdam, Berlin Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, University of Lisbon

Language: English

Topic: Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

Subfield: Nature and Landscape Conservation

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Life on land

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,800