Predicting how seed-eating passerines respond to cattle grazing in a semi-arid grassland using seed preferences and diet

Sagario, M. Cecilia; Cueto, Víctor R.; Zarco, Agustín; Pol, Rodrigo G.; Marone, Luis

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2019.106736

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…At the same time, such preferences can explain the pervasive bottom‐up effect provoked by the reduction of large seeds under continuous cattle grazing on both the behaviour (i.e. diet switching; Marone et al 2017) and the abundance of seed‐eating birds in the central Monte desert (Zarco et al 2019, Sagario et al 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plausible causes of seed preferences and diet composition in seed‐eating passerines

Marone

Cueto

Casenave

et al. 2021

Journal of Avian Biology

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We evaluated whether seed mass, handling time, handling efficiency and profitability account for (a) preferences in controlled experiments and (b) field‐diet composition of four bird species of the Monte desert, Argentina. The question of whether birds maximise their energy intake rates while feeding on seeds is assessed. We used feeding experiments with six native seed species of 0.07–0.75 mg (i.e. the seed‐size range consumed in nature), which account for 0.59–0.84 of the field diet of the four birds. We measured seed‐handling times and used published information on bird preferences and diets, and on seed chemistry, for further calculations. Bird preferences were always positively related to seed mass and also to seed profitability in the two intermediate‐sized birds. Diet composition correlated positively with seed mass and negatively with seed profitability in three species, but some birds also showed a flexible behaviour eating the most attractive seeds according to their availability. This behaviour is not genuinely opportunistic because it only focuses on a restricted fraction of the total seed species present in the field. Contrary to expectations of species coexistence due to resource partitioning, small and large birds showed similar feeding efficiencies when eating the smaller and the larger seeds. The positive association between seed mass and profitability in several studies suggests that most birds can maximise their energy reward, on average and in the long‐term, by preferring the larger seeds. A combination of potential feeding optimisation with certain flexibility in the field may characterise the feeding ecology of desert seed‐eating birds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plausible causes of seed preferences and diet composition in seed‐eating passerines

Marone

Cueto

Casenave

et al. 2021

Journal of Avian Biology

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“…Los números son medias por parque ± EE. urbanas, la capacidad explicativa y predictiva del enfoque basado en rasgos biológicos (Sagario et al 2020).…”

Section: D��unclassified

¿Predicen los rasgos biológicos de las aves su ocupación del gradiente de urbanización en el Área Metropolitana de Mendoza?

Camín¹,

Figini²,

Marone³

2022

Ecol. Austral

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R��.Estudiamos las variaciones espacio-temporales de ensambles de aves en parques de un gradiente urbano del Área Metropolitana de Mendoza (AMM), Argentina. Suponiendo que la urbanización filtra las especies del pool regional según sus rasgos biológicos, definimos especies tolerantes y evasoras urbanas según tuvieran, al menos, cuatro de los seis rasgos propios de cada categoría. Predijimos que las tolerantes alcanzan densidades máximas en matriz urbana o urbana-suburbana y las evasoras, en matriz periurbana o periurbanasuburbana. En las estaciones reproductiva y no reproductiva de 2017 y 2018 registramos las aves en transectas de faja en las tres matrices. Los resultados apoyaron la idea y permitieron identificar dos filtros ambientales: uno entre el AMM y su entorno que permite el ingreso de especies tolerantes urbanas frecuentes, y otro en el centro de la ciudad que impide el ingreso de evasoras infrecuentes mientras prevalecen las tolerantes urbanas. Se ha hipotetizado que los núcleos urbanos sostienen pocas especies muy abundantes y que los ambientes intermedios alojan mayor riqueza específica. Estimamos abundancia y riqueza en las tres matrices, pero no encontramos ni mayor abundancia en la matriz urbana ni mayor riqueza en la matriz suburbana. Esto podría deberse a que la matriz suburbana ofrece un ecotono muy restringido dentro del AMM. La plausible mayor estabilidad climática y de recursos en el centro de las ciudades no se asoció en Mendoza con ensambles más estables estacional o interanualmente. Los rasgos biológicos permiten identificar distintos filtros ambientales a la par que predicen y explican la ocupación espacial de numerosas especies de aves. Algunos de nuestros resultados destacan la importancia de los parques urbanos respecto a las calles linderas como espacios que atenúan los efectos de la urbanización sobre las aves, información valiosa para planes de desarrollo urbano sustentable.[Palabras clave: Argentina, evasoras urbanas, filtro biológico, parques urbanos, tolerancia ambiental, tolerantes urbanas] A��. Do biological traits of birds predict their occupation of an urbanization gradient in MendozaMetropolitan Area?. We studied the spatial and temporal dynamics of bird assemblages in parks located within an urban gradient of the Mendoza Metropolitan Area (AMM), Argentina. Under the assumption that urbanization filters the species from the regional pool according to their biological traits, we defined tolerant and urban avoider species as those having at least four up to six traits of every category, and predicted that urban tolerant species reach maximum densities in urban or urban-suburban matrixes, whereas avoiders species are more abundant in peri-urban or peri-urban-suburban matrixes. In breeding and non-breeding seasons of 2017 and 2018, we recorded birds on strip transects on the three matrixes. Our results supported the idea and allowed the identification of two environmental filters: one located between the AMM and its surroundings, which admits urban-tolerant common speci...

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“…For example, it consistently reduces the production and abundance of grass seeds (and more inconsistently of forb seeds too) in the soil seed bank of that semiarid region. In a comparative assessment of three different Monte locations, Sagario et al (2020) reported that the abundance of two seed-eating bird species (Saltatricula multicolor and Zonotrichia capensis) decreases systematically under heavy grazing. Previous (descriptive) studies of the diet of those species in grazed (Marone et al 2017) and ungrazed habitats (Marone et al 2008) suggested that whereas S. multicolor is an obligate grass-seed specialist, Z. capensis is an opportunistic seedeater, with a generalized diet that includes both grass and forb seeds (Marone et al 2008;Ríos et al 2012).…”

Section: The Synthetic Thesis Of Truth and The Research Program In Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Mario Bunge’s systemic thesis of truth: implications for research practice and the “reproducibility crisis”

Marone¹,

Casenave²,

Solar³

2019

RHV

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There are currently serious concerns that published scientific findings often fail to be reproducible, and that some solutions may be gleaned by attending the several methodological and sociological recommendations that could be found in the literature. However, researchers would also arrive at some answers by considering the advice of the philosophy of science, particularly semantics, about theses on truth related to scientific realism. Sometimes scientists understand the correspondence thesis of truth (CTT) as asserting that the next unique empirical confirmation of a hypothesis suffices to attribute truth to it provisionally. Such empiricist bias is not necessarily at the core of CTT, but Mario Bunge proposed the synthetic thesis of truth (STT), based on CTT, to explicitly avoid the bias. STT requires considering a hypothesis corroborated, both by purely empirical confirmation and external consistency or compatibility with the bulk of existing background knowledge (systemicity). While a capricious understanding of CTT could be rigged to recommend the “one shot game” in hypothesis testing, STT clearly demands the use of multiple approaches, empirical as well as theoretical, and it asserts that a scientific test is effective to the extent to which it is neither purely empirical, nor viewed in isolation. Pattern consistency (empirical control) together with an understanding of causal relations (rational together with empirical control) make confirmed hypotheses robust and more reliable. The militancy of the double mechanism of hypothesis control of STT can help mitigate the reproducibility crisis. Earl Werner’s research program in community ecology is an example of the (implicit) use of STT criteria, which leads to the development of reliable, cross-checked, ecological results, with high predictive capacity.

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Predicting how seed-eating passerines respond to cattle grazing in a semi-arid grassland using seed preferences and diet

Cited by 17 publications

References 43 publications

Plausible causes of seed preferences and diet composition in seed‐eating passerines

Plausible causes of seed preferences and diet composition in seed‐eating passerines

¿Predicen los rasgos biológicos de las aves su ocupación del gradiente de urbanización en el Área Metropolitana de Mendoza?

Mario Bunge’s systemic thesis of truth: implications for research practice and the “reproducibility crisis”

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