Fruit, Minerals, and Forest Elephant Trails: Do All Roads Lead to Rome?1

Blake, Stephen; Inkamba-Nkulu, Clement

doi:10.1646/03215

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Importantly, although our samples of fruit availability were randomly assigned, they were situated on the tracks of followed elephants, and thus reflect fruit availability in elephant used areas. Savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) preferentially select nutrient rich patches (Pretorius et al, 2011) and forest elephant trails occur in fruit rich locations (Blake et al, 2006), thus the spatiotemporal variation in fruit abundance may also reflect spatiotemporal variation in elephant foraging behavior and habitat selection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Like savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), forest elephants show patterned preferences for various habitats, potentially moving to fulfill their energy and nutrition needs (Sach et al, 2019). The ranging behavior of forest elephants has been linked to resources such as browse abundance, mineral deposits, water resources, and the physical and seasonal distribution of ripe fruit (Blake, 2002;Blake et al, 2006;Buij et al, 2007;Mills et al, 2018), but the relative importance of these resources on their movements is largely unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although forest elephants have broad diets, they are highly frugivorous and foraging decisions likely track fruit resources (White, 1994b;Theuerkauf et al, 2000;Blake et al, 2009). The distribution of forest elephant trails, for example, is associated with high-nutrient food sources such as fruit and mineral deposits (Blake et al, 2006) and elephant trails frequently lead to important fruiting trees (Short, 1983;White, 1992). Although rainforests are often viewed as lush, productive ecosystems, ripe fruit is often patchily distributed and seasonally scarce (Wallace, 2005;Janmaat et al, 2014;Adamescu et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climatic and Resource Determinants of Forest Elephant Movements

et al. 2020

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climatic and Resource Determinants of Forest Elephant Movements

et al. 2020

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“…If motors could co-localize with cytoskeletal filaments, the utilization of system components and other benefits arising from motor-filament interactions, such as enhanced filament stability, , would be maximized. Such a mutualistic interaction between motors and filaments would be reminiscent of how the spread of fruit seeds by elephants leads to the growth of fruit-bearing trees along their paths. − Our goal was to engineer such a mutualistic interaction in the microtubule-kinesin system (Figure a).…”

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confidence: 99%

Kinesin-Recruiting Microtubules Exhibit Collective Gliding Motion while Forming Motor Trails

et al. 2020

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Microtubules gliding on surfaces coated with kinesin motors are minimalist experimental systems for studying collective behavior. Collective behavior in these systems arises from interactions between filaments, for example, from steric interactions, depletion forces, or cross-links. To maximize the utilization of system components and the production of work, it is desirable to achieve mutualistic interactions leading to the congregations of both types of agents, that is, cytoskeletal filaments and molecular motors. To this end, we used a microtubule-kinesin system, where motors reversibly bind to the surface via an interaction between a hexahistidine (His 6 ) tag on the motor and a Ni(II)nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA) moiety on the surface. The surface density of binding sites for kinesin motors was increased relative to our earlier work, driving the motors from the solution to the surface. Characterization of the motor-surface interactions in the absence of microtubules yielded kinetic parameters consistent with previous data and revealed the capacity of the surface to support two-dimensional motor diffusion. The motor density gradually fell over 2 h, presumably due to the stripping of Ni(II) from the NTA moieties on the surface. Microtubules gliding on these reversibly bound motors were unable to cross each other and at high enough densities began to align and form long, dense bundles. The kinesin motors accumulated in trails surrounding the microtubule bundles and participated in microtubule transport.

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“…At this stance, drove roads -routes traditionally used for mobile pastoralist livestock -become particularly interesting. Traditional ones are presumed to often derive from ancient migratory routes of wildlife (Manzano Baena & Casas 2010), hence being analogous to other natural roads observed at multiple scales from ants Buhl et al 2009), to elephants (Blake & Inkamba-Nkulu 2004;Shannon et al 2009). Drove roads have been observed to have a strong effect in increasing multifunctionality of the landscape by working as linear grasslands and increasing heterogeneity at the large scale, translating into an increase of biodiversity in diverse taxonomic groups such as plants (Azcárate et al 2013a), ants (Azcárate et al 2013b;Hevia et al 2013) or even bees, linked with important pollination services (Hevia et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbivore corridors sustain genetic footprint in plant populations: a case for Spanish drove roads

García‐Fernández

Manzano

Seoane

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Habitat fragmentation is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity conservation and productivity, that are mediated by direct human impact. Its consequences include genetic depauperation, including phenomena such as inbreeding depression or reduction in genetic diversity. While the capacity of wild and domestic herbivores to sustain long-distance dispersal has been proven, the impact of herbivore corridors in plant population genetics remains to be observed. We conducted this study in the Conquense Drove Road in Spain, with a sustained use by livestock during centuries where transiting herds passed by twice a year en route to winter and summer pastures. We compared genetic descriptors of Plantago lagopus populations in the drove road with populations in the surrounding agricultural matrix, at varying distances from human settlements. We observed significant differences for coefficients of inbreeding between the drove road and the agricultural matrix, as well as significant trends for higher genetic diversity around human settlements. Trends for higher genetic diversity in drove roads may be present, although they were not significant with the available sample size. The resulting functional landscape has human settlements as dispersal hotspots, while the drove road act as a pollinator reservoir and possibly also as a linear structure facilitating long-distance dispersal in an agricultural matrix where local P. lagopus populations depend rather on short-distance dispersal. These results highlight the role of herbivore corridors for conserving the migration capacity of plants, and they contribute as well in understanding the role of human dispersal for the spread of invasive species.

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Fruit, Minerals, and Forest Elephant Trails: Do All Roads Lead to Rome?1

Cited by 8 publications

References 24 publications

Climatic and Resource Determinants of Forest Elephant Movements

Climatic and Resource Determinants of Forest Elephant Movements

Kinesin-Recruiting Microtubules Exhibit Collective Gliding Motion while Forming Motor Trails

Herbivore corridors sustain genetic footprint in plant populations: a case for Spanish drove roads

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