Dataset Information

Cumulative effects of widespread landscape change alter predator-prey dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Predator search efficiency can be enhanced by anthropogenic landscape change, leading to increased predator-prey encounters and subsequent prey population declines. Logging increases early successional vegetation, providing ungulate forage. This increased forage, however, is accompanied by linear feature networks that increase predator hunting efficiency by facilitating predator movement and increasing prey vulnerability. We used integrated step selection analyses to weigh support for multiple hypotheses representing the combined impact of logging features (cutblocks and linear features) on wolf (Canis lupus) movement and habitat selection in interior British Columbia. Further, we examine the relationship between logging and wolf kill-sites of moose (Alces alces) identified using spatiotemporal wolf location cluster analysis. Wolves selected for linear features, which increased their movement rates. New (0-8 years since harvest) cutblocks were selected by wolves. Moose kill-sites had a higher probability of occurring in areas with higher proportions of new and regenerating (9-24 years since harvest) cutblocks. The combined selection and movement responses by wolves to logging features, coupled with increased moose mortality sites associated with cutblocks, indicate that landscape change increases risk for moose. Cumulative effects of landscape change contribute to moose population declines, stressing the importance of cohesive management and restoration of anthropogenic features.

SUBMITTER: Boucher NP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9270463 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Heterogeneity among prey in their susceptibility to predation is a potentially important stabilizer of predator-prey interactions, reducing the magnitude of population oscillations and enhancing total prey population abundance. When microevolutionary responses of prey populations occur at time scales comparable to population dynamics, adaptive responses in prey defense can, in theory, stabilize predator-prey dynamics and reduce top-down effects on prey abundance. While experiments have tested these predictions, less explored are the consequences of the evolution of prey phenotypes that can persist in both vulnerable and invulnerable classes. We tested this experimentally using a laboratory aquatic system composed of the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus as a predator and the prey Synura petersenii, a colony-forming alga that exhibits genetic variation in its propensity to form colonies and colony size (larger colonies are a defense against predators). Prey populations of either low initial genetic diversity and low adaptive capacity or high initial genetic diversity and high adaptive capacity were crossed with predator presence and absence. Dynamics measured over the last 127 days of the 167-day experiment revealed no effects of initial prey genetic diversity on the average abundance or temporal variability of predator populations. However, genetic diversity and predator presence/absence interactively affected prey population abundance and stability; diversity of prey had no effects in the absence of predators but stabilized dynamics and increased total prey abundance in the presence of predators. The size structure of the genetically diverse prey populations diverged from single strain populations in the presence of predators, showing increases in colony size and in the relative abundance of cells found in colonies. Our work sheds light on the adaptive value of colony formation and supports the general view that genetic diversity and intraspecific trait variation of prey can play a vital role in the short-term dynamics and stability of planktonic predator-prey systems.

Dataset Information

Cumulative effects of widespread landscape change alter predator-prey dynamics.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets