气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Large herbivores suppress liana infestation in an African savanna

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DOI	10.1073/pnas.2101676118
	Large herbivores suppress liana infestation in an African savanna
	Coverdale T.C.; O’Connell R.D.; Hutchinson M.C.; Savagian A.; Kartzinel T.R.; Palmer T.M.; Goheen J.R.; Augustine D.J.; Sankaran M.; Tarnita C.E.; Pringle R.M.
发表日期	2021
ISSN	0027-8424
卷号	118 期号:41
英文摘要	African savannas are the last stronghold of diverse large-mammal communities, and a major focus of savanna ecology is to understand how these animals affect the relative abundance of trees and grasses. However, savannas support diverse plant life-forms, and human-induced changes in large-herbivore assemblages—declining wildlife populations and their displacement by livestock—may cause unexpected shifts in plant community composition. We investigated how herbivory affects the prevalence of lianas (woody vines) and their impact on trees in an East African savanna. Although scarce (<2% of tree canopy area) and defended by toxic latex, the dominant liana, Cynanchum viminale (Apocynaceae), was eaten by 15 wild large-herbivore species and was consumed in bulk by native browsers during experimental cafeteria trials. In contrast, domesticated ungulates rarely ate lianas. When we experimentally excluded all large herbivores for periods of 8 to 17 y (simulating extirpation), liana abundance increased dramatically, with up to 75% of trees infested. Piecewise exclusion of different-sized herbivores revealed functional complementarity among size classes in suppressing lianas. Liana infestation reduced tree growth and reproduction, but herbivores quickly cleared lianas from trees after the removal of 18-y-old exclosure fences (simulating rewilding). A simple model of liana contagion showed that, without herbivores, the long-term equilibrium could be either endemic (liana–tree coexistence) or an all-liana alternative stable state. We conclude that ongoing declines of wild large-herbivore populations will disrupt the structure and functioning of many African savannas in ways that have received little attention and that may not be mitigated by replacing wildlife with livestock. © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
英文关键词	Competition and facilitation; Defaunation; DNA metabarcoding; Ecological regime shifts; Trophic rewilding
语种	英语
来源期刊	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/238344
作者单位	Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States; University Program in Ecology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, United States; Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States; Department of Zoology & Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, United States; Rangeland Resources Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service, Fort Collins, CO 80526, United States; National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, 560065, India; School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Coverdale T.C.,O’Connell R.D.,Hutchinson M.C.,et al. Large herbivores suppress liana infestation in an African savanna[J],2021,118(41).
APA	Coverdale T.C..,O’Connell R.D..,Hutchinson M.C..,Savagian A..,Kartzinel T.R..,...&Pringle R.M..(2021).Large herbivores suppress liana infestation in an African savanna.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,118(41).
MLA	Coverdale T.C.,et al."Large herbivores suppress liana infestation in an African savanna".Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118.41(2021).