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Cabodevilla X, Ortiz-Santaliestra ME, Fernández-Tizón M, Zurdo J, Madeira MJ, Giralt D, Sardà-Palomera F, Fernández-Benéitez MJ, Mougeot F. Dietary DNA metabarcoding reveals a trophic niche partitioning among sympatric Iberian sandgrouses and bustards. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 933:172989. [PMID: 38714259 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2023] [Revised: 05/02/2024] [Accepted: 05/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/09/2024]
Abstract
The study of trophic niche partitioning is of great importance for understanding community structure and species coexistence, particularly if these are threatened. Here DNA metabarcoding was used to assess the diet of four threatened steppe bird species (two bustards and two sandgrouses), with the aim of better understanding their dietary requirements, trophic interactions, and potential threats. The results showed seasonal and interspecific differences in their plant diet, with greater importance of cultivated plants during autumn and winter (around 50 % of their diet) than spring. Plants of the genus Convolvulus and of the family Brassicaceae were frequently consumed by all species. In spring, poppies (Papaver spp.) were a considerable part of their diet, and could be used as a source of carotenoids or for their anti-parasitic properties. Furthermore, results evidenced a trophic niche partitioning among species, with a marked segregation between bustard species and, to a lesser extent, between sandgrouse species. Diet similarity was generally higher between species from different orders that occur in mixed-species flocks (bustard - sandgrouse) than between species of the same order. This partitioning was probably related to a stratification in habitat use rather than to specialisation and might prevent competition to some extent. However, the homogenization of trophic resources resulting from agricultural intensification could pose an important threat, particularly during autumn, when weeds are scarcer and the most abundant trophic resource are sown seeds, which are often treated with pesticides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xabier Cabodevilla
- Conservation Biology Group, Landscape Dynamics and Biodiversity Program, Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Spain; Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain.
| | - Manuel E Ortiz-Santaliestra
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Mario Fernández-Tizón
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Julia Zurdo
- Terrestrial Ecology Group (TEG-UAM), Department of Ecology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (CIBC-UAM), Madrid, Spain
| | - María J Madeira
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain
| | - David Giralt
- Conservation Biology Group, Landscape Dynamics and Biodiversity Program, Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Spain
| | - Francesc Sardà-Palomera
- Conservation Biology Group, Landscape Dynamics and Biodiversity Program, Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Spain
| | - María J Fernández-Benéitez
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - François Mougeot
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain
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González del Portillo D, Morales MB, Arroyo B. Temporal trends of land-use favourability for the strongly declining little bustard: assessing the role of protected areas. PeerJ 2024; 12:e16661. [PMID: 38188158 PMCID: PMC10771766 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
The little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) is a steppe bird strongly and negatively influenced by agricultural intensification in Europe. Here, we use the little bustard as a model species to examine how favourability (relative occurrence likelihood of a species based on environmental characteristics, such as habitat availability) varies regionally with degree of protection in north-western Spain. The Natura2000 network is one of the main biodiversity conservation tools of the European Union, aiming to protect areas hosting species of conservation concern from unfavourable land-use changes. The network covers many landscapes across the continent, including farmland. Additionally, we examine the relationship between trends in land-use favourability and little bustard population trends over a decade in the Nature Reserve of Lagunas de Villafáfila, a protected area also in the Natura2000 network where active and intense management focused on steppe bird conservation is carried out. Favourability was much greater in Villafáfila than in both protected areas with lower degree of protection and in non-protected areas. Land-use favourability increased slightly between 2011 and 2020 both in and out of protected areas, whereas little bustard populations declined sharply in that period, even in Villafáfila. Spatial variations in little bustard abundance within Villafáfila depended on social attraction (increasing with the number of neighbouring males) but not significantly on small-scale variations in land-use favourability. These results suggest that land-use management in Natura2000 areas needs to be more conservation-focused, favouring natural and seminatural habitats and traditional farming practices to improve land-use favourability for little bustards and other steppe birds. Additional factors, such as field-level agricultural management or social interaction variables that may cause an Allee effect, should be incorporated in little bustard favourability models to improve their use in conservation planning.
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Affiliation(s)
- David González del Portillo
- Department of Ecology and Research Center on Biodiversity and Global Change, Autónoma University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Manuel B. Morales
- Department of Ecology and Research Center on Biodiversity and Global Change, Autónoma University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Beatriz Arroyo
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC, CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ciudad Real, Spain
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Gortázar C, Fernandez-de-Simon J. One tool in the box: the role of hunters in mitigating the damages associated to abundant wildlife. EUR J WILDLIFE RES 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10344-022-01578-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Cabodevilla X, Gómez-Moliner BJ, Abad N, Madeira MJ. Simultaneous analysis of the intestinal parasites and diet through eDNA metabarcoding. Integr Zool 2022; 18:399-413. [PMID: 35179820 DOI: 10.1111/1749-4877.12634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Agricultural expansion and intensification are having a huge impact on plant and arthropod diversity and abundance, affecting food availability for farmland birds. Difficult food access, in turn, can lead to immunosuppression and a higher incidence of parasites. In the studies designed to examine changes in the diet of birds and their parasites, metabarcoding is proving particularly useful. This technique requires mini-barcodes capable of amplifying the DNA of target organisms from faecal environmental DNA. To help to understand the impact of agricultural expansion on biodiversity, this study sought to design and identify mini-barcodes that might simultaneously assess diet and intestinal parasites from the faeces of farmland birds. The capacity to identify diet and parasites of two existing and three newly-developed mini-barcodes was tested "in silico" in relation to the behaviour of a reference eukaryotic barcode. Among the newly designed mini-barcodes, MiniB18S_81 showed the higher taxonomic coverage of eukaryotic taxa and a greater amplification and identification capacity for diet and parasite taxa. Moreover, when it was tested on faecal samples from five different steppe bird species, MiniB18S_81 showed high taxonomic resolution of the most relevant diet and parasite phyla, Arthropoda, Nematoda, Platyhelminthes and Apicomplexa, at the order level. Thus, the mini-barcode developed emerges as an excellent tool to simultaneously provide detailed information regarding the diet and parasites of birds, essential for conservation and management. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xabier Cabodevilla
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain.,Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Benjamín Juan Gómez-Moliner
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain
| | - Naiara Abad
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain
| | - María José Madeira
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain
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Cabodevilla X, Estrada A, Mougeot F, Jimenez J, Arroyo B. Farmland composition and farming practices explain spatio-temporal variations in red-legged partridge density in central Spain. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 799:149406. [PMID: 34426345 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2021] [Revised: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 07/28/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Many farmland bird populations are declining, and their negative trends are often associated with changes in land-use or farming practices, including the use of agrochemicals. The red-legged partridge (RLP) is a Mediterranean farmland game species of high socio-economic importance whose populations are thought to have declined sharply since the mid-20th century associated with farmland changes. However, no large-scale studies have tested whether abundance or trends of RLP are related to farmland composition or management. We used hierarchical distance sampling models to estimate RLP abundance in 2010 in central Spain (Castilla-La Mancha), a main European population stronghold of this species. We studied associations between RLP density and land-uses (including variation in management: irrigated crops or organic farming). We also assessed regional abundance variation over seven years (2010-2017) and its relationship with changes in land-use. Our results show that RLP abundance increased with the availability of natural vegetation and traditional rain-fed vineyards, but decreased with increasing proportions of tree crops and irrigated vineyards; the latter association was less pronounced in areas sensitive to nitrate contamination in water, where the amount of fertilizers applied in farmland and use of certain farming practices is more strictly regulated. These results support the idea that increases in intensive vineyards are detrimental to the RLP. We also report a strong population decline of RLP in the region, with a 51% abundance reduction in seven years. This decline was steeper in areas where more natural vegetation had been lost and where ecological tree crops had increased. Overall, our results indicate that changes in land-use (type of crop, or the destruction of natural vegetation in farmland) and farming practices (e.g. use of irrigation in certain crops, use of nitrates) have important impacts on this farmland bird, affecting both spatial distribution and population dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xabier Cabodevilla
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain; Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain.
| | - Alba Estrada
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain; Biogeography, Diversity and Conservation Lab. Department of Animal Biology, Universidad de Málaga, Spain
| | - François Mougeot
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - José Jimenez
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Beatriz Arroyo
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain
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Cabodevilla X, Mougeot F, Bota G, Mañosa S, Cuscó F, Martínez-García J, Arroyo B, Madeira MJ. Metabarcoding insights into the diet and trophic diversity of six declining farmland birds. Sci Rep 2021; 11:21131. [PMID: 34702920 PMCID: PMC8548310 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-00519-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2021] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Knowledge of feeding ecology of declining species, such as farmland birds, is essential to address their conservation requirements, especially when their habitats are suffering important reductions of trophic resources. In this study, we apply a metabarcoding approach to describe the diet composition of six of the most significant farmland birds inhabiting European cereal pseudo-steppes: little bustard, great bustard, pin-tailed sandgrouse, black-bellied sandgrouse, red-legged partridge, and common quail. We further studied seasonal diet variations (autumn to spring) in all species but the common quail, whose diet was studied during spring and summer. We show that study species´ diets mostly consisted of plants, although in the case of little bustard and great bustard arthropods are also highly relevant. Among arthropods, we found high proportions of thrips, arachnids, and springtails, which were previously unreported in their diet, and some taxa that could be used as antiparasitic food. Moreover, we report that little bustard's diet is the least rich of that of all studied species, and that diet of all these species is less diverse in winter than in autumn and spring. Diet composition of these declining species supports the importance of natural and semi-natural vegetation and landscape mosaics that can provide a wide variety of arthropods, plants, and seeds all year-round.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xabier Cabodevilla
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain.
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain.
| | - François Mougeot
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Gerard Bota
- Landscape Dynamics and Biodiversity Programme, Forest Science and Technology Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Santi Mañosa
- Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia I Ciències Ambientals, Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, Avinguda Diagonal 643, 08028, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Francesc Cuscó
- Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia I Ciències Ambientals, Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, Avinguda Diagonal 643, 08028, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Julen Martínez-García
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain
| | - Beatriz Arroyo
- Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - María J Madeira
- Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain
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Sage RB, Hoodless AN, Woodburn MIA, Draycott RAH, Madden JR, Sotherton NW. Summary review and synthesis: effects on habitats and wildlife of the release and management of pheasants and red-legged partridges on UK lowland shoots. WILDLIFE BIOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.2981/wlb.00766] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Rufus B. Sage
- R. B. Sage , A. N. Hoodless, M. I. A. Woodburn, R. A. H. Draycott, N. W. Sotherton, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Fordingbridge, SP6 1EF, UK
| | - Andrew N. Hoodless
- R. B. Sage , A. N. Hoodless, M. I. A. Woodburn, R. A. H. Draycott, N. W. Sotherton, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Fordingbridge, SP6 1EF, UK
| | - Maureen I. A. Woodburn
- R. B. Sage , A. N. Hoodless, M. I. A. Woodburn, R. A. H. Draycott, N. W. Sotherton, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Fordingbridge, SP6 1EF, UK
| | - Roger A. H. Draycott
- R. B. Sage , A. N. Hoodless, M. I. A. Woodburn, R. A. H. Draycott, N. W. Sotherton, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Fordingbridge, SP6 1EF, UK
| | - Joah R. Madden
- J. R. Madden, Center for Research in Animal Behaviour, Exeter Univ.,, Exeter, UK
| | - Nicolas W. Sotherton
- R. B. Sage , A. N. Hoodless, M. I. A. Woodburn, R. A. H. Draycott, N. W. Sotherton, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Fordingbridge, SP6 1EF, UK
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