1. Vertebrate scavenger communities vary in species composition across the globe. They include a wide array of species with diverse ecological strategies and life histories that support essential ecosystem functions, such as carrion removal. While previous studies have mostly focussed on how community aspects such as species richness and composition affect carrion consumption rates, it remains unclear whether this important function of scavengers is better explained by the dominance of key functional traits or niche complementarity as a result of a diverse functional representation.
2. Here, we test three competitive hypotheses to assess if carrion consumption in vertebrate scavenger communities depends on: (a) the presence of key dominant traits (functional identity hypothesis), (b) functional diversity that promotes niche complementarity (functional diversity hypothesis) or (c) the accumulation of individuals and species, irrespective of their trait representation (functional equivalence). To explore these hypotheses, we used five study areas in Spain and South Africa, which represent a gradient of scavenger biodiversity, that is, ranging from communities dominated by facultative scavengers, such as generalists and meso‐predators, to those including vultures and large carnivores.
3. Within study areas, traits that characterize obligate scavengers or large carnivores (e.g. mean home range, proportion of social foragers) were positively linked to rapid carrion consumption, while the biomass of functional groups including facultative scavengers were either weakly or negatively associated with carrion consumption.
4. When combining all study areas, higher rates of carrion consumption were related to scavenger communities dominated by species with large home ranges (e.g. Gyps vultures), which was found to be a key trait. In contrast, metrics describing functional diversity (functional dispersion) and functional equivalence (species richness and abundance) had lower predictive power in explaining carrion consumption patterns.
5. Our data support the functional identity hypothesis as a better framework for explaining carrion consumption rates than functional diversity or equivalence. Our findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms sustaining ecosystem functioning in vertebrate communities and reinforce the role of obligate scavengers and large carnivores as keystone species in terrestrial ecosystems.

中文翻译：

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大型家庭拾荒者支持更高的removal体清除率

1. 全世界的脊椎动物清除剂群落的物种组成各不相同。它们包括种类繁多的物种，这些物种具有多样的生态策略和生活史，可支持生态系统的基本功能，例如去除腐肉。尽管以前的研究主要集中在物种丰富度和组成等社区方面如何影响腐肉消耗率，但尚不清楚主要功能特征的优势地位或利基互补性（由于功能多样化而产生的优势）能否更好地解释这种清除剂的重要功能。表示。
2. 在这里，我们测试了三个竞争假设，以评估脊椎动物清道夫群落中腐肉的消费是否取决于：（a）关键显性特征的存在（功能同一性假设），（b）促进利基互补性的功能多样性（功能多样性假设）或（ c）个体和物种的积累，不论其性状表征（功能对等）如何。为了探索这些假设，我们使用了西班牙和南非的五个研究区域，这些研究区域代表了拾荒者生物多样性的梯度，范围从兼职拾荒者（如通才和中观食肉动物为主）的社区到包括秃large和大型食肉动物的社区。
3. 在研究区域内，专性清道夫或大型食肉动物的特征（例如平均家庭范围，社会觅食者的比例）与快速腐肉消耗正相关，而功能性群体（包括兼职清除剂）的生物量与腐肉消耗较弱或负相关。
4. 当结合所有研究区域时，较高的腐肉消耗率与以大范围居所的物种（例如吉普斯秃ul）为主的清道夫群落有关，这被认为是关键特征。相反，描述功能多样性（功能分散）和功能等效性（物种丰富度和丰度）的指标在解释腐肉消耗模式时具有较低的预测能力。
5. 我们的数据支持功能同一性假设，这是比功能多样性或等效性更好的框架来解释腐肉消耗率。我们的发现有助于理解脊椎动物群落中维持生态系统功能的机制，并加强专职清除剂和大型食肉动物作为陆地生态系统中的关键物种的作用。