The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Carnivores are ecologically important and sensitive to habitat loss and anthropogenic disruption. Here we measured trophic level and gut bacterial composition as proxies of carnivore ecological status across the Upper Peninsula, Michigan, for wild American marten ( Martes americana hereafter marten)...
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0275850 2024-05-19T07:28:11+00:00 The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan Lafferty, Diana J. R. McKenney, Erin A. Gillman, Sierra J. Kailing, Chris D. Walimaa, Myles C. Kailing, Macy J. Roell, Brian J. Corti, Paulo Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation College of Arts and Sciences at Northern Michigan University Sigma Xi’s Grants-in-Aid of Research Award Grant NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275850 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275850 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 17, issue 11, page e0275850 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2022 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275850 2024-05-01T07:05:28Z Carnivores are ecologically important and sensitive to habitat loss and anthropogenic disruption. Here we measured trophic level and gut bacterial composition as proxies of carnivore ecological status across the Upper Peninsula, Michigan, for wild American marten ( Martes americana hereafter marten). In contrast to studies that have focused on omnivorous and herbivorous species, we find that marten, like other carnivore species without a cecum, are dominated by Firmicutes (52.35%) and Proteobacteria (45.31%) but lack Bacteroidetes. Additionally, a majority of the 12 major bacterial genera (occurring at ≥1%) are known hydrogen producers, suggesting these taxa may contribute to host energy requirements through fermentative production of acetate. Our study suggests that live trapping and harvest methods yield similar marten gut microbiome data. In addition, preserving undisturbed forest likely impacts marten ecology by measurably increasing marten trophic level and altering the gut microbiome. Our study underscores the utility of the gut microbiome as a tool to monitor the ecological status of wild carnivore populations. Article in Journal/Newspaper American marten Martes americana PLOS PLOS ONE 17 11 e0275850 |
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English |
description |
Carnivores are ecologically important and sensitive to habitat loss and anthropogenic disruption. Here we measured trophic level and gut bacterial composition as proxies of carnivore ecological status across the Upper Peninsula, Michigan, for wild American marten ( Martes americana hereafter marten). In contrast to studies that have focused on omnivorous and herbivorous species, we find that marten, like other carnivore species without a cecum, are dominated by Firmicutes (52.35%) and Proteobacteria (45.31%) but lack Bacteroidetes. Additionally, a majority of the 12 major bacterial genera (occurring at ≥1%) are known hydrogen producers, suggesting these taxa may contribute to host energy requirements through fermentative production of acetate. Our study suggests that live trapping and harvest methods yield similar marten gut microbiome data. In addition, preserving undisturbed forest likely impacts marten ecology by measurably increasing marten trophic level and altering the gut microbiome. Our study underscores the utility of the gut microbiome as a tool to monitor the ecological status of wild carnivore populations. |
author2 |
Corti, Paulo Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation College of Arts and Sciences at Northern Michigan University Sigma Xi’s Grants-in-Aid of Research Award Grant NSF Graduate Research Fellowship |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lafferty, Diana J. R. McKenney, Erin A. Gillman, Sierra J. Kailing, Chris D. Walimaa, Myles C. Kailing, Macy J. Roell, Brian J. |
spellingShingle |
Lafferty, Diana J. R. McKenney, Erin A. Gillman, Sierra J. Kailing, Chris D. Walimaa, Myles C. Kailing, Macy J. Roell, Brian J. The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan |
author_facet |
Lafferty, Diana J. R. McKenney, Erin A. Gillman, Sierra J. Kailing, Chris D. Walimaa, Myles C. Kailing, Macy J. Roell, Brian J. |
author_sort |
Lafferty, Diana J. R. |
title |
The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan |
title_short |
The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan |
title_full |
The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan |
title_fullStr |
The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan |
title_full_unstemmed |
The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan |
title_sort |
gut microbiome of wild american marten in the upper peninsula of michigan |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275850 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275850 |
genre |
American marten Martes americana |
genre_facet |
American marten Martes americana |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 17, issue 11, page e0275850 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275850 |
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PLOS ONE |
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17 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
e0275850 |
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