![]() Scavenger activity (eating or removing the carcass) was recorded at 49 carcasses (70%) by nine species. ![]() When only time spent eating the carrion was considered, 98% of the activity was by crows. The total activity time was 113 hours, of which 94% was by Carrion crows ( Corvus corone Fig. In this study we identify the species richness and proportional carcass removal activities of a scavenger community using camera traps on experimentally deployed and standardised carcasses.Ī total of 17 vertebrate species were recorded by camera traps at 63 (90%) of 70 deployed experimental rat carcasses. A rapidly growing body of research has demonstrated that scavenging also provides an important ecosystem service role, the removal of carcasses from the environment and the associated hygiene benefits 13, 14, 15, 16. Mobile scavengers redistribute energy and nutrients within ecosystems and across ecosystem boundaries 11, 12. Scavenging is more phylogenetically and geographically widespread than previously thought, with many predators, including taxa not previously thought to do so, actually being facultative scavengers 10. Scavenging results in more energy being held in higher trophic levels and promotes the linkage of different (detrital & heterotrophic) food webs, which are key for ecosystem structure, function and stability 8, 9. Here we examine the relative importance of individual species in delivering a key component of ecosystem functioning, carcass removal by scavengers. Similarly, pest control via avian predation of arthropods in agroforestry plantations is mostly due to the activity of a single species of insectivorous bird, with species richness having no effect 7. For example, crop pollination can be dominated by the activity of a few abundant species of bees 6. Whilst there is some emerging support for the importance of species richness in delivering real world ecosystem function 3, 4 it has been believed for some time that the most common species are likely to be disproportionately responsible 5. ![]() Hence how these findings reflect the relationship in natural ecosystems remains largely untested 2. These experiments tend however to be highly simplified with very small plot sizes and controlled abundances for each species. ![]() Experimental results overwhelmingly suggest that reduction in species richness leads to loss of ecosystem function 1. The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function has been the subject of decades of intensive experimental research and lies at the heart of key concepts in ecology and conservation biology. ![]()
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