- Title
- Monitoring the dead as an ecosystem indicator
- Creator
- Newsome, Thomas; Barton, Brandon; Buck, Julia; DeBruyn, Jennifer; Barton, Philip
- Date
- 2021
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/176949
- Identifier
- vital:15199
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7542
- Identifier
- ISBN:2045-7758 (ISSN)
- Abstract
- Dead animal biomass (carrion) is present in all terrestrial ecosystems, and its consumption, decomposition, and dispersal can have measurable effects on vertebrates, invertebrates, microbes, parasites, plants, and soil. But despite the number of studies examining the influence of carrion on food webs, there has been no attempt to identify how general ecological processes around carrion might be used as an ecosystem indicator. We suggest that knowledge of scavenging and decomposition rates, scavenger diversity, abundance, and behavior around carrion, along with assessments of vegetation, soil, microbe, and parasite presence, can be used individually or in combination to understand food web dynamics. Monitoring carrion could also assist comparisons of ecosystem processes among terrestrial landscapes and biomes. Although there is outstanding research needed to fully integrate carrion ecology and monitoring into ecosystem management, we see great potential in using carrion as an ecosystem indicator of an intact and functional food web. © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton" is provided in this record**
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Relation
- Ecology and Evolution Vol. 11, no. 11 (2021), p. 5844-5856
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Rights
- Copyright @ 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- 0602 Ecology; 0603 Evolutionary Biology; Carrion; Decomposition; Ecosystem health; Indicators
- Full Text
- Reviewed
- Hits: 1449
- Visitors: 1441
- Downloads: 144
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Published version | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |