Synergistic effect of land-use and vegetation greenness on vulture nestling body condition in arid ecosystems

Abstract

Climate-driven environmental change and land-use change often interact in their impact on biodiversity, but these interactions have received little scientific attention. Here we study the effects of climate-driven environmental variation (i.e. vegetation greenness) and land-use (protected versus unprotected areas) on body condition of vulture nestlings in savannah landscapes. We combine ringing data on nestling measurements of two vultures (lappet-faced and African white-backed vulture) with land-use and environmental variables. We show that body condition of white-backed vulture nestlings decreased through the study period and was lowest inside protected areas. For the lappet-faced vulture, nestling condition was improved during harsh years with lower than average vegetation greenness assumed to result in increased ungulate mortality, but only within protected areas. Such interaction was not tested for the white-backed vulture due to collinearity. The species-specific effects of land-use and vegetation greenness on nestling condition of the two sympatric vulture species likely stem from their different life-histories, diet preferences and foraging behaviour. While translation of current findings on nestling conditions to their possible influence on population demography and species persistence require further studies, our findings demonstrate how environmental change may trigger selective bottom-up ecosystem responses in arid environments under global change.

Modelling the effect of environmental variables on the reproductive success of Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) in Sardinia, Italy

“…2013, Santangeli et al . 2018), which depends not only on the abundance and mortality rates of ungulates and on the presence of mammalian competitors, but also on carrion visibility and accessibility (Kane & Kendall 2017, Santangeli et al . 2018).…”

“…in shrubs and pastures. The distribution of vultures is strongly related to the availability of carrion (Spiegel et al 2013, Santangeli et al 2018, which depends not only on the abundance and mortality rates of ungulates and on the presence of mammalian competitors, but also on carrion visibility and accessibility (Kane & Kendall 2017, Santangeli et al 2018. Vultures rely mostly on visual cues to detect carrion (Ruxton & Houston 2004, Cortés-Avizanda et al 2014, Martin-Díaz et al 2020 and several studies report that carrion accessibility for vultures is higher in habitat with low vegetation coverage, such as pasturelands and open landscapes (Bamford et al, 2009a, 2009b, Ogada et al 2012b, Arrondo et al 2019, Pardo-Barquín et al 2019.…”

“…2018), which depends not only on the abundance and mortality rates of ungulates and on the presence of mammalian competitors, but also on carrion visibility and accessibility (Kane & Kendall 2017, Santangeli et al . 2018). Vultures rely mostly on visual cues to detect carrion (Ruxton & Houston 2004, Cortés‐Avizanda et al .…”

White-rumped Vulture’s Habitat Suitability Prediction using MaxEnt in Arunachal Pradesh

“…Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) estimates the density of greenness of an area on the land surface. It can be used as a proxy for ungulate forage availability [40]. NDVI data were obtained from MODIS data (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/ products/mod13a3v006/).…”

“…The suitability of the habitats for vultures was greatly influenced by land use-land cover (forest and waterbodies), isothermality, and precipitation seasonality in Madhya Pradesh [29]; altitude, mean temperature of the wettest quarter, precipitation of the warmest quarter, and mean diurnal range in Nepal [30]. Habitat suitability or distribution of WRV and other vultures were strongly influenced by the food availability [31][32][33], elevation [34,35], climate [35][36][37][38], vegetation [39,40], and land use pattern [29,40,41].…”