Testing the effects of ecologically extinct mammals on vegetation in arid Australia: A long-term experimental approach,Austral Ecology

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Testing the effects of ecologically extinct mammals on vegetation in arid Australia: A long-term experimental approach
Austral Ecology ( IF 1.6 ) Pub Date : 2021-08-14 , DOI: 10.1111/aec.13097
Kimberley H. Michael ₁ , Steven W. J. Leonard _{1,

2} , Orsolya Decker ₁ , Simon J. Verdon ₁ , Heloise Gibb ₁

Affiliation

The loss of species from ecosystems can have cascading impacts on species interactions and ecosystem function. Australia has experienced the greatest loss of mammals globally in the past 200 years, but we know little of how the loss of this suite of ecosystem engineers and herbivores has affected vegetation. We used a threatened mammal reintroduction sanctuary to investigate effects of ecologically extinct mammals on plant assemblages. First, we tested the net effects of mammals using a long-term exclusion experiment within the sanctuary. Second, we used a three-year disturbance experiment to determine the relative roles of herbivory and physical disturbance in driving changes in plant assemblages. Third, we compared outcomes inside and outside the sanctuary to determine how effects of reintroduced mammals differed from contemporary mammal assemblages. Plant species richness was greatest in mammal exclusion plots and declined across all treatments from 2011 to 2018, probably due to drought. Plant composition changed in response to mammal exclusion, with six species increasing significantly, shrubs and myrmecochorous plants becoming more common and large-seeded species less common. Responses to experimental disturbance were less clear. Grass and resprouters were more common, and palatable and large-seeded plants were less common outside the sanctuary (exposed to contemporary mammal assemblage). Our study shows that reintroductions of ecologically extinct mammals have substantial impacts on plant assemblages, both through ecosystem engineering and herbivory, and these impacts differ from those of contemporary mammal faunas, suggesting that pre-European Australian ecosystems were markedly different from contemporary ecosystems.

中文翻译：

测试生态灭绝的哺乳动物对澳大利亚干旱地区植被的影响：一种长期的实验方法

生态系统中物种的丧失会对物种相互作用和生态系统功能产生级联影响。在过去的 200 年里，澳大利亚经历了全球最大的哺乳动物损失，但我们对这组生态系统工程师和食草动物的损失如何影响植被知之甚少。我们使用受威胁的哺乳动物重新引入保护区来研究生态灭绝的哺乳动物对植物组合的影响。首先，我们使用保护区内的长期排斥实验测试了哺乳动物的净效应。其次，我们使用为期三年的干扰实验来确定食草和物理干扰在驱动植物组合变化中的相对作用。第三，我们比较了保护区内外的结果，以确定重新引入的哺乳动物与当代哺乳动物组合的影响有何不同。植物物种丰富度在哺乳动物排除地块中最高，并且从 2011 年到 2018 年在所有处理中下降，可能是由于干旱。植物组成因哺乳动物排斥而发生变化，其中六种物种显着增加，灌木和多毛植物变得更常见，而大种子物种则不常见。对实验干扰的反应不太清楚。草和resprouters更常见，可口和大种子植物在保护区外不太常见（暴露于当代哺乳动物群落）。我们的研究表明，重新引入生态灭绝的哺乳动物会对植物群落产生重大影响，

更新日期：2021-08-14

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