Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas

Foraging decisions by rodents are key for the long-term maintenance of oak populations in which avian seed dispersers are absent or inefficient. Decisions are determined by the environmental setting in which acorn-rodent encounters occur. In particular, seed value, competition and predation risks ha...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Morán López, Teresa, Sánchez Dávila, Jesús, Torre, Ignasi, Navarro Castilla, Álvaro, Barja Núñez, Isabel, Díaz, Mario
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/706527
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/706527
https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260419
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Quercus
Hoarding
Apodemus
Biología y Biomedicina / Biología
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spelling Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesasMorán López, TeresaSánchez Dávila, JesúsTorre, IgnasiNavarro Castilla, ÁlvaroBarja Núñez, IsabelDíaz, MarioQuercusHoardingApodemusBiología y Biomedicina / BiologíaForaging decisions by rodents are key for the long-term maintenance of oak populations in which avian seed dispersers are absent or inefficient. Decisions are determined by the environmental setting in which acorn-rodent encounters occur. In particular, seed value, competition and predation risks have been found to modify rodent foraging decisions in forest and human-modified habitats. Nonetheless, there is little information about their joint effects on rodent behavior, and hence, local acorn dispersal (or predation). In this work, we manipulate and model the mouse-oak interaction in a Spanish dehesa, an anthropogenic savanna system in which nearby areas can show contrasting levels of ungulate densities and antipredatory cover. First, we conducted a large-scale cafeteria field experiment, where we modified ungulate presence and predation risk, and followed mouse foraging decisions under contrasting levels of moonlight and acorn availability. Then, we estimated the net effects of competition and risk by means of a transition probability model that simulated mouse foraging decisions. Our results show that mice are able to adapt their foraging decisions to the environmental context, affecting initial fates of handled acorns. Under high predation risks mice foraged opportunistically carrying away large and small seeds, whereas under safe conditions large acorns tended to be predated in situ. In addition, in the presence of ungulates lack of antipredatory cover around trees reduced mice activity outside tree canopies, and hence, large acorns had a higher probability of survival. Overall, our results point out that inter-specific interactions preventing efficient foraging by scatter-hoarders can reduce acorn predation. This suggests that the maintenance of the full set of seed consumers as well as top predators in dehesas may be key for promoting local dispersalPublic Library of ScienceDepartamento de BiologíaFacultad de Ciencias20222022-08-15research articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10486/706527https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260419reponame:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAMinstname:Universidad Autónoma de MadridInglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/7065272026-06-23T12:46:27Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas
title Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas
spellingShingle Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas
Morán López, Teresa
Quercus
Hoarding
Apodemus
Biología y Biomedicina / Biología
title_short Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas
title_full Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas
title_fullStr Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas
title_full_unstemmed Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas
title_sort Ungulate presence and predation risks reduce acorn predation by mice in dehesas
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Morán López, Teresa
Sánchez Dávila, Jesús
Torre, Ignasi
Navarro Castilla, Álvaro
Barja Núñez, Isabel
Díaz, Mario
author Morán López, Teresa
author_facet Morán López, Teresa
Sánchez Dávila, Jesús
Torre, Ignasi
Navarro Castilla, Álvaro
Barja Núñez, Isabel
Díaz, Mario
author_role author
author2 Sánchez Dávila, Jesús
Torre, Ignasi
Navarro Castilla, Álvaro
Barja Núñez, Isabel
Díaz, Mario
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Departamento de Biología
Facultad de Ciencias
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Quercus
Hoarding
Apodemus
Biología y Biomedicina / Biología
topic Quercus
Hoarding
Apodemus
Biología y Biomedicina / Biología
description Foraging decisions by rodents are key for the long-term maintenance of oak populations in which avian seed dispersers are absent or inefficient. Decisions are determined by the environmental setting in which acorn-rodent encounters occur. In particular, seed value, competition and predation risks have been found to modify rodent foraging decisions in forest and human-modified habitats. Nonetheless, there is little information about their joint effects on rodent behavior, and hence, local acorn dispersal (or predation). In this work, we manipulate and model the mouse-oak interaction in a Spanish dehesa, an anthropogenic savanna system in which nearby areas can show contrasting levels of ungulate densities and antipredatory cover. First, we conducted a large-scale cafeteria field experiment, where we modified ungulate presence and predation risk, and followed mouse foraging decisions under contrasting levels of moonlight and acorn availability. Then, we estimated the net effects of competition and risk by means of a transition probability model that simulated mouse foraging decisions. Our results show that mice are able to adapt their foraging decisions to the environmental context, affecting initial fates of handled acorns. Under high predation risks mice foraged opportunistically carrying away large and small seeds, whereas under safe conditions large acorns tended to be predated in situ. In addition, in the presence of ungulates lack of antipredatory cover around trees reduced mice activity outside tree canopies, and hence, large acorns had a higher probability of survival. Overall, our results point out that inter-specific interactions preventing efficient foraging by scatter-hoarders can reduce acorn predation. This suggests that the maintenance of the full set of seed consumers as well as top predators in dehesas may be key for promoting local dispersal
publishDate 2022
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2022
2022-08-15
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv research article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10486/706527
https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260419
url http://hdl.handle.net/10486/706527
https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260419
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Public Library of Science
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Public Library of Science
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
instname:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
instname_str Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
reponame_str Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
collection Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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