Dataset Information

Varied diets, including broadleaved forage, are important for a large herbivore species inhabiting highly modified landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Diet quality is an important determinant of animal survival and reproduction, and can be described as the combination of different food items ingested, and their nutritional composition. For large herbivores, human landscape modifications to vegetation can limit such diet-mixing opportunities. Here we use southern Sweden's modified landscapes to assess winter diet mixtures (as an indicator of quality) and food availability as drivers of body mass (BM) variation in wild moose (Alces alces). We identify plant species found in the rumen of 323 moose harvested in Oct-Feb, and link variation in average calf BM among populations to diets and food availability. Our results show that variation in calf BM correlates with variation in diet composition, diversity, and food availability. A varied diet relatively rich in broadleaves was associated with higher calf BM than a less variable diet dominated by conifers. A diet high in shrubs and sugar/starch rich agricultural crops was associated with intermediate BM. The proportion of young production forest (0-15?yrs) in the landscape, an indicator of food availability, significantly accounted for variation in calf BM. Our findings emphasize the importance of not only diet composition and forage quantity, but also variability in the diets of large free-ranging herbivores.

SUBMITTER: Felton AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7002458 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Varied diets, including broadleaved forage, are important for a large herbivore species inhabiting highly modified landscapes.

Felton Annika M AM Holmström Emma E Malmsten Jonas J Felton Adam A Cromsigt Joris P G M JPGM Edenius Lars L Ericsson Göran G Widemo Fredrik F Wam Hilde K HK

Scientific reports 20200205 1

Diet quality is an important determinant of animal survival and reproduction, and can be described as the combination of different food items ingested, and their nutritional composition. For large herbivores, human landscape modifications to vegetation can limit such diet-mixing opportunities. Here we use southern Sweden's modified landscapes to assess winter diet mixtures (as an indicator of quality) and food availability as drivers of body mass (BM) variation in wild moose (Alces alces). We id ...[more]

PMID: 32024896

Similar Datasets

Project description:The increasing human impact on the earth's biosphere is inflicting changes at all spatial scales. As well as deterioration and fragmentation of natural biological systems, these changes also led to other, unprecedented effects and emergence of novel habitats. In boreal zone, intensive forest management has negatively impacted a multitude of deadwood-associated species. This is especially alarming given the important role wood-inhabiting fungi have in the natural decay processes. In the boreal zone, natural broad-leaved-dominated, herb-rich forests are threatened habitats which have high wood-inhabiting fungal species richness. Fungal diversity in other broadleaved forest habitat types is poorly known. Traditional wood pastures and man-made afforested fields are novel habitats that could potentially be important for wood-inhabiting fungi. This study compares species richness and fungal community composition across the aforementioned habitat types, based on data collected for wood-inhabiting fungi occupying all deadwood diameter fractions. Corticioid and polyporoid fungi were surveyed from 67 130 deadwood particles in four natural herb-rich forests, four birch-dominated wood pastures, and four birch-dominated afforested field sites in central Finland. As predicted, natural herb-rich forests were the most species-rich habitat. However, afforested fields also had considerably higher overall species richness than wood pastures. Many rare or rarely collected species were detected in each forest type. Finally, fungal community composition showed some divergence not only among the different habitat types, but also among deadwood diameter fractions. Synthesis and applications: In order to maintain biodiversity at both local and regional scales, conserving threatened natural habitat types and managing traditional landscapes is essential. Man-made secondary woody habitats could provide the necessary resources and serve as surrogate habitats for many broadleaved deadwood-associated species, and thus complement the existing conservation network of natural forests.

Project description:Video recordings of behavioral activities including eating, ruminating, drinking, standing, and lying were monitored to determine the minimum number of sampling days and sampling frequency required to obtain reliable estimates of these behaviors. Eight continental crossbred heifers, individually housed in a tie-stall barn with total mixed ration provided once per day, were divided by BW into two blocks and assigned to each of the two dietary treatments in a crossover design: high-forage diet (HF, forage:concentrate ratio 70:30) and low-forage diet (LF, forage:concentrate ratio 30:70). The cows were monitored continuously using a digital video recording system for 6 d in each of the two periods and a trained observer manually recorded the behavioral activities by minute. Mean time spent performing each behavior for 6 d with instantaneous samples of 1 min was compared with those obtained using fewer sampling days (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 d) and less frequent scanning (2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 30, and 60 min) using linear regression analysis, and the minimum number of sampling days or frequency was determined. Diet did not affect the accuracy and precision of predicting behavior from video recordings of the cows. When sampling days and scanning intervals were combined, the minimum recommended sampling frequency for accurately estimating a specific set of behaviors of beef heifers in tie stalls was: eating, 2 d with 4-min intervals; ruminating, 3 d with 4-min intervals; drinking, 2 d with 3-min intervals; and standing and lying, 2 d with 15-min intervals. Increasing sampling frequency beyond these minimums further enhanced the accuracy and precision of predictions. The total time of each behavioral activity was different between cows fed HF and LF diets with eating, ruminating, total chewing, and standing of heifers fed the HF diet greater (P < 0.01), but the lying (P < 0.01) and drinking time (P = 0.028) of heifers fed the LF diet greater. Meal patterns were different (P < 0.05) between the treatments except when meal size (kg) was expressed as DM or OM intake. For rumination patterns, the mean or maximum bout length (min/bout) was greater, but the maximum or minimum length of time heifers took to ruminate after eating was lower for the HF diet. From a practical standpoint, it is recommended to use 3 days of observations scanned at an interval of 4 min to reliably estimate the behavior of cows. If the focus is only lying and standing time, then 2 days with 15 min intervals can be used.

Project description:The rumen microbial complex adaptive mechanism invalidates various methane (CH4) mitigation strategies. Shifting the hydrogen flow toward alternative electron acceptors, such as propionate, was considered to be a meaningful mitigation strategy. A completely randomized design was applied in in vitro incubation to investigate the effects of replacing forage fiber with non-forage fiber sources (NFFS) in diets on methanogenesis, hydrogen metabolism, propionate production and the methanogenic and bacterial community. There are two treatments in the current study, CON (a basic total mixed ration) and TRT (a modified total mixed ration). The dietary treatments were achieved by partly replacing forage fiber with NFFS (wheat bran and soybean hull) to decrease forage neutral detergent fiber (fNDF) content from 24.0 to 15.8%, with the composition and inclusion rate of other dietary ingredients remaining the same in total mixed rations. The concentrations of CH4, hydrogen (H2) and volatile fatty acids were determined using a gas chromatograph. The archaeal and bacterial 16S rRNA genes were sequenced by Miseq high-throughput sequencing and used to reveal the relative abundance of methanogenic and bacterial communities. The results revealed that the concentration of propionate was significantly increased, while the concentration of acetate and the acetate to propionate ratio were not affected by treatments. Compared with CON, the production of H2 increased by 8.45% and the production of CH4 decreased by 14.06%. The relative abundance of Methanomassiliicoccus was significantly increased, but the relative abundance of Methanobrevibacter tended to decrease in TRT group. At the bacterial phylum level, the TRT group significantly decreased the relative abundance of Firmicutes and tended to increase the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes. The replacement of forage fiber with NFFS in diets can affect methanogenesis by shifting the hydrogen flow toward propionate, and part is directed to H2 in vitro. The shift was achieved by a substitution of Firmicutes by Bacteroidetes, another substitution of Methanobrevibacter by Methanomassiliicoccus. Theoretical predictions of displacements of H2 metabolism from methanogenesis to propionate production was supported by the dietary intervention in vitro.

Dataset Information

Varied diets, including broadleaved forage, are important for a large herbivore species inhabiting highly modified landscapes.

Publications

Varied diets, including broadleaved forage, are important for a large herbivore species inhabiting highly modified landscapes.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets