Authors

Esther Sebastián-González, Universitat Miguel Hernández
Zebensui Morales-Reyes, Universitat Miguel Hernández
Francisco Botella, Universitat Miguel Hernández
Lara Naves-Alegre, Universitat Miguel Hernández
Juan M. Pérez-García, Universitat Miguel Hernández
Patricia Mateo-Tomás, Oviedo Universidad
Pedro P. Olea, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Marcos Moleón, University of Granada
Jomar M. Barbosa, Doñana Biological Station‐CSIC
Fernando Hiraldo, Doñana Biological Station‐CSIC
Eneko Arrondo, Doñana Biological Station‐CSIC
José A. Donázar, Doñana Biological Station‐CSIC
Ainara Cortés‐Avizanda, Doñana Biological Station‐CSIC
Nuria Selva, Polish Academy of Sciences
Sergio A. Lambertucci, Universidad Nacional del Comahue
Aishwarya Bhattacharjee, Queens College
Alexis L. Brewer, Queens College
Erin F. Abernethy, Oregon State University
Kelsey L. Turner, University of Georgia
James C. Beasley, University of Georgia
Travis L. DeVault, University of Georgia
Hannah C. Gerke, University of Georgia
Olin E. Rhodes Jr., University of Georgia
Andrés Ordiz, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Camilla Wikenros, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Barbara Zimmermann, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
Petter Wabakken, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
Christopher C. Wilmers, University of California, Santa Cruz
Justine A. Smith, University of California, Davis
Corinne J. Kendall, North Carolina Zoo
Darcy Ogada, The Peregrine Fund
Ethan Frehner, University of Utah
Maximilian L. Allen, University of Illinois
Heiko U. Wittmer, Victoria University of Wellington
James R. A. Butler, CSIRO Land and Water
Johan T. du Toit, Utah State UniversityFollow
et al.

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Ecography

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.

Publication Date

5-8-2020

First Page

1

Last Page

13

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Abstract

The organization of ecological assemblages has important implications for ecosystem functioning, but little is known about how scavenger communities organize at the global scale. Here, we test four hypotheses on the factors affecting the network structure of terrestrial vertebrate scavenger assemblages and its implications on ecosystem functioning. We expect scavenger assemblages to be more nested (i.e. structured): 1) in species‐rich and productive regions, as nestedness has been linked to high competition for carrion resources, and 2) regions with low human impact, because the most efficient carrion consumers that promote nestedness are large vertebrate scavengers, which are especially sensitive to human persecution. 3) We also expect climatic conditions to affect assemblage structure, because some scavenger assemblages have been shown to be more nested in colder months. Finally, 4) we expect more organized assemblages to be more efficient in the consumption of the resource. We first analyzed the relationship between the nestedness of the scavenger assemblages and climatic variables (i.e. temperature, precipitation, temperature variability and precipitation variability), ecosystem productivity and biomass (i.e. NDVI) and degree of human impact (i.e. human footprint) using 53 study sites in 22 countries across five continents. Then, we related structure (i.e. nestedness) with its function (i.e. carrion consumption rate). We found a more nested structure for scavenger assemblages in regions with higher NDVI values and lower human footprint. Moreover, more organized assemblages were more efficient in the consumption of carrion. However, our results did not support the prediction that the structure of the scavenger assemblages is directly related to climate. Our findings suggest that the nested structure of vertebrate scavenger assemblages affects its functionality and is driven by anthropogenic disturbance and ecosystem productivity worldwide. Disarray of scavenger assemblage structure by anthropogenic disturbance may lead to decreases in functionality of the terrestrial ecosystems via loss of key species and trophic facilitation processes.

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