Seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in North America

Abstract North American plains bison ( Bison bison ) have been reintroduced across their former range, yet we know too little about their current diet to understand what drove their past migrations as well as observed continental-scale variation in weight gain and reproduction. In order to better un...

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Published in:Scientific Reports
Main Author: Craine, Joseph M.
Other Authors: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86260-9
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86260-9.pdf
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86260-9
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spelling crspringernat:10.1038/s41598-021-86260-9 2023-05-15T18:49:31+02:00 Seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in North America Craine, Joseph M. U.S. Department of Agriculture 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86260-9 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86260-9.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86260-9 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Scientific Reports volume 11, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 Multidisciplinary journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86260-9 2022-01-04T16:17:27Z Abstract North American plains bison ( Bison bison ) have been reintroduced across their former range, yet we know too little about their current diet to understand what drove their past migrations as well as observed continental-scale variation in weight gain and reproduction. In order to better understand the seasonal diets of bison at the continental scale, bison fecal material was collected monthly from April to September in 2019 across 45 sites throughout the conterminous United States. Fecal material was analyzed for dietary quality using near infrared spectroscopy and dietary composition with DNA metabarcoding. As observed in previous research, dietary quality peaked in June and was on average greatest for sites with cold, wet climates. Yet, in April, dietary quality was highest in warmer regions, likely reflecting earlier phenology of plants in southern than northern regions. Independent of climate and season, bison that consumed more warm-season grasses had lower dietary protein concentrations. Interpreting the relative abundance of sequences from different plant species as the relative intake of protein from those species, only 38% of bison protein intake came from grasses. An equal amount of dietary protein came from legumes (38%) and 22% from non-leguminous forbs. Seasonal shifts in bison diet were also clear, in part, following the phenology of functional groups. For example, cool-season grass protein intake was highest in May, while legume protein intake was highest in August. Comparing data taken in June and September 2018 in a previous study with corresponding data in 2019, on average, June [CP] was 20% higher in 2019 than 2018, while September [CP] did not differ between years. Dietary functional group composition was generally similar in amounts and relationships with climate between years, yet in September 2019, legumes contributed 20% more protein and warm-season grasses 14% less than in September 2018. In all, this research demonstrates that bison consistently rely on eudicots for protein with the functional group composition of their diet in some ways consistent across space and time, but also spatially and temporally variable. The early-season inversion of plant quality gradients would have been a strong driver of migratory behavior for large numbers of bison optimizing protein intake. As most bison currently experience protein deficiency, optimizing protein intake under current non-migratory conditions will require increasing the relative abundance of high-protein species such as N 2 -fixing species. Article in Journal/Newspaper Bison bison bison Plains Bison Springer Nature (via Crossref) Scientific Reports 11 1
institution Open Polar
collection Springer Nature (via Crossref)
op_collection_id crspringernat
language English
topic Multidisciplinary
spellingShingle Multidisciplinary
Craine, Joseph M.
Seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in North America
topic_facet Multidisciplinary
description Abstract North American plains bison ( Bison bison ) have been reintroduced across their former range, yet we know too little about their current diet to understand what drove their past migrations as well as observed continental-scale variation in weight gain and reproduction. In order to better understand the seasonal diets of bison at the continental scale, bison fecal material was collected monthly from April to September in 2019 across 45 sites throughout the conterminous United States. Fecal material was analyzed for dietary quality using near infrared spectroscopy and dietary composition with DNA metabarcoding. As observed in previous research, dietary quality peaked in June and was on average greatest for sites with cold, wet climates. Yet, in April, dietary quality was highest in warmer regions, likely reflecting earlier phenology of plants in southern than northern regions. Independent of climate and season, bison that consumed more warm-season grasses had lower dietary protein concentrations. Interpreting the relative abundance of sequences from different plant species as the relative intake of protein from those species, only 38% of bison protein intake came from grasses. An equal amount of dietary protein came from legumes (38%) and 22% from non-leguminous forbs. Seasonal shifts in bison diet were also clear, in part, following the phenology of functional groups. For example, cool-season grass protein intake was highest in May, while legume protein intake was highest in August. Comparing data taken in June and September 2018 in a previous study with corresponding data in 2019, on average, June [CP] was 20% higher in 2019 than 2018, while September [CP] did not differ between years. Dietary functional group composition was generally similar in amounts and relationships with climate between years, yet in September 2019, legumes contributed 20% more protein and warm-season grasses 14% less than in September 2018. In all, this research demonstrates that bison consistently rely on eudicots for protein with the functional group composition of their diet in some ways consistent across space and time, but also spatially and temporally variable. The early-season inversion of plant quality gradients would have been a strong driver of migratory behavior for large numbers of bison optimizing protein intake. As most bison currently experience protein deficiency, optimizing protein intake under current non-migratory conditions will require increasing the relative abundance of high-protein species such as N 2 -fixing species.
author2 U.S. Department of Agriculture
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Craine, Joseph M.
author_facet Craine, Joseph M.
author_sort Craine, Joseph M.
title Seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in North America
title_short Seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in North America
title_full Seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in North America
title_fullStr Seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in North America
title_full_unstemmed Seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in North America
title_sort seasonal patterns of bison diet across climate gradients in north america
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
publishDate 2021
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86260-9
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86260-9.pdf
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86260-9
genre Bison bison bison
Plains Bison
genre_facet Bison bison bison
Plains Bison
op_source Scientific Reports
volume 11, issue 1
ISSN 2045-2322
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