Dataset Information

Flexible Foraging Response of Wintering Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha) to Food Availability in the Lakes of the Yangtze River Floodplain, China.

ABSTRACT: Wetlands are disappearing or degrading at an unprecedented rate due to the increase in human encroachment and disturbance, eventually leading to habitat loss for waterbirds, which is the primary cause of the decline in the Hooded Crane (Grus monacha) population. The Hooded Cranes have to constantly adjust their foraging strategies to survive to cope with this situation. In order to study how cranes respond to food resources in mosaic habitat, we surveyed a total of 420 food quadrats and 736 behavioral samples from three habitats during three wintering periods in Shengjin Lake and Caizi Lake. We measured temporal and between-habitat differences in foraging time budget, foraging frequency, and foraging success rate. Akaike's information criterion was selected between the models of food abundance and availability. The results indicated that the wintering cranes spent the majority of their time (66.55%) foraging and shifted their foraging behaviors based upon food abundance and availability in different habitats. Our analyses also indicated that cranes were willing to forage more food with poor sediment penetrability in sub-optimal habitats. Foraging time budget was based on the food depth, and the foraging frequency and foraging success rate were based on food abundance. Cranes adopted flexible foraging strategies in response to the alternative food resources in mosaic wetland habitats, as it could mitigate the negative impacts of habitat loss and facilitate survival.

SUBMITTER: Wei Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7222413 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Flexible Foraging Response of Wintering Hooded Cranes (<i>Grus monacha</i>) to Food Availability in the Lakes of the Yangtze River Floodplain, China.

Wei Zhenhua Z Zheng Meng M Zhou Lizhi L Xu Wenbin W

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20200327 4

Wetlands are disappearing or degrading at an unprecedented rate due to the increase in human encroachment and disturbance, eventually leading to habitat loss for waterbirds, which is the primary cause of the decline in the Hooded Crane (<i>Grus monacha</i>) population. The Hooded Cranes have to constantly adjust their foraging strategies to survive to cope with this situation. In order to study how cranes respond to food resources in mosaic habitat, we surveyed a total of 420 food quadrats and 7 ...[more]

PMID: 32230979

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Project description:The "gut fungal microbiome" maintains the immune system, homeostasis, and various physiological functions of an organism. Different factors shape and affect gut fungal diversity and community composition, such as environment, habitat type, food resources, and seasons during migration. Wild birds amid migration are exposed to different habitats with different environments, available food resources, and seasons, which may substantially impact their gut fungal community composition and diversity. The hooded crane (Grus monacha) is a known migratory bird that migrates over long distances and is exposed to varied habitats with different environments and food types. We investigated the differences in gut fungal diversity and community composition between wintering and stopover sites amid three migratory seasons. We deduced the gut fungal pathogenic diversity and community composition during winter, fall, and spring by using high throughput sequencing (Illumina Mi-seq), and the internal transcribed region 2 (ITS2) was examined. Samples were collected from Shengjin Lake in the winter and Lindian during the fall and spring. The dominant fungal phyla found across the three seasons were Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Zygomycota, and Rozellomycota. The gut fungal alpha diversity showed significant shifts during winter at the wintering site compared with the fall and spring seasons at the stopover site. The fungal community composition exhibited a significant change across the three seasons (ANOSIM p = 0.001). The results also demonstrated that the diversity and relative abundance of potential pathogens also showed divergence in winter compared to fall and spring. This study provides the basis for understanding the discrepancy in gut fungal diversity and community composition during migratory seasons at both wintering and stopover grounds. It also suggests that conservation measures should be applied to the conservation of hooded cranes and other wild birds, as the risk of cross-infection increases during seasonal migration.

Dataset Information

Flexible Foraging Response of Wintering Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha) to Food Availability in the Lakes of the Yangtze River Floodplain, China.

Publications

Flexible Foraging Response of Wintering Hooded Cranes (<i>Grus monacha</i>) to Food Availability in the Lakes of the Yangtze River Floodplain, China.

Similar Datasets

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