Foraging plasticity allows a large herbivore to persist in a sheltering forest habitat: DNA metabarcoding diet analysis of the European bison

Kowalczyk, Rafał; Wójcik, Jan M.; Taberlet, Pierre; Kamiński, Tomasz; Miquel, Christian; Valentini, Alice; Craine, Joseph M.; Coissac, Éric

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2019.117474

Cited by 46 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…This pattern was also well expressed in the selection by European bison of plots with high frequency of forbs and juvenile woody plants in the forest floor stratum. This result is in line with the feeding ecology of European bison, which is considered a mixed feeder, with a 67% winter and 97% summer share of herbaceous plants in its forage (Borowski & Kossak, 1972; Gębczyńska et al., 1991; Kowalczyk et al., 2019; Krasińska & Krasiński, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…This is a serious obstacle for selective and small bodied herbivores. However, the European bison is a large size generalist (Kowalczyk et al., 2019; Krasińska & Krasiński, 2007), consuming a wide array of over 450 plant species (Jaroszewicz and Pirożnikow, 2008) of varying quality. It may successfully cope with plant secondary metabolites owing to the large volume (>100 liters) of its ruminant stomach (Gill, 1967; Pytel, 1969).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contrary to the fact that the European bison is known nowadays mainly from forest ecosystems, several authors suggest that this species evolved in open or mixed mosaic habitats (Bocherens et al., 2015; Kerley et al., 2012), and in effect open areas should play an important role in its ecology. The foraging of European bison in forest gaps and open meadows was confirmed directly by field observations (Daleszczyk et al., 2007; Krasińska & Krasiński, 2007; Kuijper et al., 2013) and indirectly by revealing the high share of nonforest plant species remnants in its dung (Kowalczyk et al., 2019) and high share of nonforest plant species among endozoochorically dispersed seeds (Jaroszewicz et al., 2009). These sources unanimously suggest that species of open habitats play an important role in European bison diet and, consequently, forest gaps and clearings must play an important role in its foraging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…However, Kowalczyk et al. (2019) reported that its diet structure reflects the preference of this large herbivore for open habitats. Thus, different ungulate species in the same conditions may show different preferences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest floor plant diversity drives the use of mature spruce forests by European bison

Jaroszewicz

Borysowicz

Cholewińska

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Ungulates are important elements of forest ecosystems, shaping their structure, species composition, and functioning (Faison et al., 2016;Long et al., 2007). They influence forest vegetation via foraging, trampling, rooting, dispersing propagules, and many other behavioral activities. The intensity of pressure of ungulates on vegetation depends on the distribution and densities of their populations,

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Forest floor plant diversity drives the use of mature spruce forests by European bison

Jaroszewicz

Borysowicz

Cholewińska

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Technological advances, like the rapid emergence of DNA metabarcoding (Taberlet et al 2018), will hugely support these efforts by enabling the processing of large amounts of samples from multiple species in much shorter time and at a lower cost than what has previously been feasible with classical methods like micro‐ and macrohistology. Molecular methods can provide higher taxonomic resolution of diets (Nichols et al 2016), facilitate investigation of fine‐scale resource partitioning and expand our understanding of diet plasticity (Kowalczyk et al 2019). DNA analysis also makes it possible to investigate the links between diet and the gut microbiome of ruminants (Bergmann et al 2015, Kartzinel et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fifty years of European ungulate dietary studies: a synthesis

Spitzer

Felton

Landman

et al. 2020

Oikos

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Over recent decades, ungulate populations across Europe have undergone a rapid recovery. While this constitutes a conservation success, there is increasing concern about their impacts on shared resources with humans. Understanding ungulate food choices is crucial for predicting such impacts. Numerous studies have focused on single species or communities at narrow spatial scales. Here, we used 265 published diets from 87 European studies to investigate patterns of resource use by four common deer species (moose Alces alces, red deer Cervus elaphus, roe deer Capreolus capreolus and fallow deer Dama dama), and wild boar Sus scrofa at the continental scale. On average, deer diets separated mostly along a gradient from grass to browse. Fallow deer diets contained the most and moose diets the least amount of grass, but we also found large intraspecific variation among all deer species. Diets of roe deer, a presumed browser, frequently contained ≥ 25% grass. Wild boar diet contained grass in amounts similar to red deer but otherwise differed strongly from deer diets. All five ungulate species shifted to eating higher proportions of woody browse during winter. Habitat influenced variation in intraspecific diets, but the proportions of key forage types related to feeding type (i.e. grass for intermediate feeders red and fallow deer, and shrubs for the browsers moose and roe deer) remained fairly consisted across habitat types. In northern and central Europe, diet similarity between roe deer and red deer was highest during winter and spring and lowest during summer and autumn but remained constant across the seasons in southern Europe. We foresee that, as interspecific interactions driven by land‐use and climatic changes increase across Europe, further monitoring and testing will be needed to understand the dynamics of dietary niche partitioning among ungulates.

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Molecular analyses of carangid fish diets reveal inter‐predation, dietary overlap, and the importance of early life stages in trophic ecology

Rosa,

Gasalla,

de Queiroz

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Carangid fishes are commercially important in fisheries and aquaculture. They are distributed worldwide in both tropical and subtropical marine ecosystems. Their role in food webs is often unclear since their diet cannot be easily identified by traditional gut content analysis. They are suspected to prey on pelagic and benthic species, with clupeiform fishes being important dietary items for some species, though it is unknown whether carangids share food resources or show trophic segregation. Here, we used metabarcoding to overcome traditional challenges of taxonomic approaches to analyze the diet of seven carangid species caught as bycatch in the Brazilian southwest Atlantic sardine fishery. Stomach contents were processed from the following species: Caranx crysos, Caranx latus, Chloroscombrus chrysurus, Hemicaranx amblyrhynchus, Oligoplites saliens, Selene setapinnis, and Trachinotus carolinus. Identified diets were dominated by teleost fishes. The C. latus diet was the most distinct among the seven species, preferentially consuming Engraulis anchoita, but H. amblyrhynchus, O. saliens, and S. setapinnis also showed a trend of predominantly consuming small pelagic fishes. Finally, we found evidence of inter‐predation in carangids, especially strong between S. setapinnis and C. crysos, suggesting that consumption of early life stages may result in indirect competition through reduced recruitment in these fishes. These findings provide unprecedented insights into the biodiversity in marine ecosystems, especially the poorly known diet of carangid fishes.

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Foraging plasticity allows a large herbivore to persist in a sheltering forest habitat: DNA metabarcoding diet analysis of the European bison

Cited by 46 publications

References 69 publications

Forest floor plant diversity drives the use of mature spruce forests by European bison

Forest floor plant diversity drives the use of mature spruce forests by European bison

Fifty years of European ungulate dietary studies: a synthesis

Molecular analyses of carangid fish diets reveal inter‐predation, dietary overlap, and the importance of early life stages in trophic ecology

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