Substantial long-term effects of carcass addition on soil and plants in a grassy eucalypt woodland
- Barton, Philip, McIntyre, Sue, Evans, Maldwyn, Bump, Joseph, Cunningham, Saul, Manning, Adrian
- Authors: Barton, Philip , McIntyre, Sue , Evans, Maldwyn , Bump, Joseph , Cunningham, Saul , Manning, Adrian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecosphere Vol. 7, no. 10 (2016), p.
- Full Text:
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- Description: The decomposition of large vertebrate carcasses generates small-scale disturbances characterized by changes in soil chemistry and new opportunities for plant establishment. Yet few studies have examined whether this effect is still evident several years after death, or has consequences for landscape-scale heterogeneity. We examined soil chemistry and plant species richness and composition at 12 kangaroo carcasses (~30 kg initial mass) five years after their initial placement. Each carcass was paired with a nearby "control" site for comparison. We found that soil phosphorus was eight times higher at carcasses than at control sites, but that nitrogen concentration was similar. We also found that plant composition was substantially different between each carcass and control pair, with 80% of carcasses dominated by exotic species (mostly weedy annuals). Notably, overall variability in plant species composition across carcass sites was not different from the variability at control sites, indicating that the colonization of carcasses by weedy species did not have a homogenizing effect on plant assemblages across our study landscape. Our study demonstrates that a localized effect of large vertebrate carcasses on soil and plants was still evident after five years, indicating a state shift in the soil-plant dynamics at a carcass site. However, the effect of carcasses on landscape-scale plant community heterogeneity was minimal because colonization was by weedy plants already present in the landscape. © 2016 Barton et al.
- Authors: Barton, Philip , McIntyre, Sue , Evans, Maldwyn , Bump, Joseph , Cunningham, Saul , Manning, Adrian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecosphere Vol. 7, no. 10 (2016), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The decomposition of large vertebrate carcasses generates small-scale disturbances characterized by changes in soil chemistry and new opportunities for plant establishment. Yet few studies have examined whether this effect is still evident several years after death, or has consequences for landscape-scale heterogeneity. We examined soil chemistry and plant species richness and composition at 12 kangaroo carcasses (~30 kg initial mass) five years after their initial placement. Each carcass was paired with a nearby "control" site for comparison. We found that soil phosphorus was eight times higher at carcasses than at control sites, but that nitrogen concentration was similar. We also found that plant composition was substantially different between each carcass and control pair, with 80% of carcasses dominated by exotic species (mostly weedy annuals). Notably, overall variability in plant species composition across carcass sites was not different from the variability at control sites, indicating that the colonization of carcasses by weedy species did not have a homogenizing effect on plant assemblages across our study landscape. Our study demonstrates that a localized effect of large vertebrate carcasses on soil and plants was still evident after five years, indicating a state shift in the soil-plant dynamics at a carcass site. However, the effect of carcasses on landscape-scale plant community heterogeneity was minimal because colonization was by weedy plants already present in the landscape. © 2016 Barton et al.
Ecological processes associated with different animal taxa in urban environments
- Evans, Maldwyn, Barton, Philip, Westgate, Martin, Soga, Masashi, Fujita, Go, Miyashita, Tadashi
- Authors: Evans, Maldwyn , Barton, Philip , Westgate, Martin , Soga, Masashi , Fujita, Go , Miyashita, Tadashi
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecosphere Vol. 12, no. 8 (2021), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Urbanization is increasing globally with wide-ranging consequences for biodiversity and the ecological processes it performs. Yet knowledge of the range of ecological processes supported by biodiversity in urban environments, and the different taxa that perform these processes is poorly understood. We used a text-analysis approach to identify the research trends and gaps in knowledge in the literature on ecological processes provided by animals in urban environments. We found a divide in urban ecological processes research that grouped studies into those with an explicit link to ecological processes and those that focused on biodiversity and made an implicit link to ecological processes. We also found that the dominant taxa in urban ecological processes research were insects, which has more than twice as many studies as birds or mammals, potentially due to their recognized and explicit link to key processes and services (e.g., pollination, pollution biomonitoring) and disservices (e.g., pests, disease transmission). We found a further split between terrestrial and aquatic studies, with urban aquatic studies also declining in relative prevalence over the last 20 yr. To consolidate and advance research on ecological processes in urban environments, we suggest it will be important to bridge the divide between studies on explicit services and others on more general biodiversity. This might be achieved by placing greater focus on the processes provided by non-insect taxa, and by integrating aquatic and terrestrial perspectives. © 2021 The Authors.
- Authors: Evans, Maldwyn , Barton, Philip , Westgate, Martin , Soga, Masashi , Fujita, Go , Miyashita, Tadashi
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecosphere Vol. 12, no. 8 (2021), p.
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Urbanization is increasing globally with wide-ranging consequences for biodiversity and the ecological processes it performs. Yet knowledge of the range of ecological processes supported by biodiversity in urban environments, and the different taxa that perform these processes is poorly understood. We used a text-analysis approach to identify the research trends and gaps in knowledge in the literature on ecological processes provided by animals in urban environments. We found a divide in urban ecological processes research that grouped studies into those with an explicit link to ecological processes and those that focused on biodiversity and made an implicit link to ecological processes. We also found that the dominant taxa in urban ecological processes research were insects, which has more than twice as many studies as birds or mammals, potentially due to their recognized and explicit link to key processes and services (e.g., pollination, pollution biomonitoring) and disservices (e.g., pests, disease transmission). We found a further split between terrestrial and aquatic studies, with urban aquatic studies also declining in relative prevalence over the last 20 yr. To consolidate and advance research on ecological processes in urban environments, we suggest it will be important to bridge the divide between studies on explicit services and others on more general biodiversity. This might be achieved by placing greater focus on the processes provided by non-insect taxa, and by integrating aquatic and terrestrial perspectives. © 2021 The Authors.
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