Vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest
Abstract Vertebrate scavenging can impact food web dynamics, but our understanding of this process stems predominantly from monitoring herbivore carrion and extrapolating results across carcass types. Recent evidence suggests carnivores may avoid intraguild scavenging to reduce parasite transmission...
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crwiley:10.1002/ecs2.3691 2024-09-15T18:41:47+00:00 Vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest Peers, Michael J. L. Konkolics, Sean M. Majchrzak, Yasmine N. Menzies, Allyson K. Studd, Emily K. Boonstra, Rudy Boutin, Stan Lamb, Clayton T. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3691 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.3691 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ecs2.3691 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.3691 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecosphere volume 12, issue 8 ISSN 2150-8925 2150-8925 journal-article 2021 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3691 2024-09-05T05:10:46Z Abstract Vertebrate scavenging can impact food web dynamics, but our understanding of this process stems predominantly from monitoring herbivore carrion and extrapolating results across carcass types. Recent evidence suggests carnivores may avoid intraguild scavenging to reduce parasite transmission. If this behavior is widespread across diverse ecosystems, estimation of nutrient cycling and community scavenging rates are likely biased to a currently unknown degree. We examined whether the time to initiate scavenging, carcass persistence, or the richness of species scavenging in the boreal forest of Yukon, Canada, differed between carnivore and herbivore carcasses. Vertebrates took longer to initiate scavenging on carnivore carcasses (3.2 d) relative to herbivore carcasses (1.1 d), and carnivore carcasses persisted on the landscape for over a month longer (48.4 d and 5.5 d, respectively). The longer persistence times were due to the reduction in scavenging by carnivores such as Canada lynx ( Lynx canadensis ). Decreased scavenging was caused by changes in the propensity to consume carnivore carrion, as the number of species detecting a carcass within the first week did not differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses. These results have ramifications for our understanding of nutrient cycling and food web dynamics in the boreal forest and provide further support that carcass type should be included in future studies. Article in Journal/Newspaper Lynx Yukon Wiley Online Library Ecosphere 12 8 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
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Abstract Vertebrate scavenging can impact food web dynamics, but our understanding of this process stems predominantly from monitoring herbivore carrion and extrapolating results across carcass types. Recent evidence suggests carnivores may avoid intraguild scavenging to reduce parasite transmission. If this behavior is widespread across diverse ecosystems, estimation of nutrient cycling and community scavenging rates are likely biased to a currently unknown degree. We examined whether the time to initiate scavenging, carcass persistence, or the richness of species scavenging in the boreal forest of Yukon, Canada, differed between carnivore and herbivore carcasses. Vertebrates took longer to initiate scavenging on carnivore carcasses (3.2 d) relative to herbivore carcasses (1.1 d), and carnivore carcasses persisted on the landscape for over a month longer (48.4 d and 5.5 d, respectively). The longer persistence times were due to the reduction in scavenging by carnivores such as Canada lynx ( Lynx canadensis ). Decreased scavenging was caused by changes in the propensity to consume carnivore carrion, as the number of species detecting a carcass within the first week did not differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses. These results have ramifications for our understanding of nutrient cycling and food web dynamics in the boreal forest and provide further support that carcass type should be included in future studies. |
author2 |
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Peers, Michael J. L. Konkolics, Sean M. Majchrzak, Yasmine N. Menzies, Allyson K. Studd, Emily K. Boonstra, Rudy Boutin, Stan Lamb, Clayton T. |
spellingShingle |
Peers, Michael J. L. Konkolics, Sean M. Majchrzak, Yasmine N. Menzies, Allyson K. Studd, Emily K. Boonstra, Rudy Boutin, Stan Lamb, Clayton T. Vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest |
author_facet |
Peers, Michael J. L. Konkolics, Sean M. Majchrzak, Yasmine N. Menzies, Allyson K. Studd, Emily K. Boonstra, Rudy Boutin, Stan Lamb, Clayton T. |
author_sort |
Peers, Michael J. L. |
title |
Vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest |
title_short |
Vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest |
title_full |
Vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest |
title_fullStr |
Vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest |
title_full_unstemmed |
Vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest |
title_sort |
vertebrate scavenging dynamics differ between carnivore and herbivore carcasses in the northern boreal forest |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3691 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.3691 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ecs2.3691 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecs2.3691 |
genre |
Lynx Yukon |
genre_facet |
Lynx Yukon |
op_source |
Ecosphere volume 12, issue 8 ISSN 2150-8925 2150-8925 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3691 |
container_title |
Ecosphere |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
8 |
_version_ |
1810486167649386496 |