Biopedturbation by mammals in deserts: a review

Whitford, Walter G.; Kay, Fenton R.

doi:10.1006/jare.1998.0482

Cited by 272 publications

(295 citation statements)

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“…They found increased soil moisture in the top 10 cm of soil, but similar soil moisture content in deeper soil horizons (to 50 cm in depth). In this respect the biopedturbation of plateau pikas leading to increased rates of infiltration is similar to that of burrowing mammals in other ecosystems (Whitford and Kay 1999;Eldridge and James 2009). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

The pika and the watershed: The impact of small mammal poisoning on the ecohydrology of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Wilson

Smith

2014

AMBIO

115

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With approximately 20 % of the world's population living in its downstream watersheds, the QinghaiTibetan Plateau (QTP) is considered ''Asia's Water Tower.'' However, grasslands of the QTP, where most of Asia's great rivers originate, are becoming increasingly degraded, which leads to elevated population densities of a native small mammal, the plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae). As a result pikas have been characterized as a pest leading to wide-spread poisoning campaigns in an attempt to restore grassland quality. A contrary view is that pikas are a keystone species for biodiversity and that their burrowing activity provides a critical ecosystem service by increasing the infiltration rate of water, hence reducing overland flow. We demonstrate that poisoning plateau pikas significantly reduces infiltration rate of water across the QTP creating the potential for watershed-level impacts. Our results demonstrate the importance of burrowing mammals as ecosystem engineers, particularly with regard to their influence on hydrological functioning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

The pika and the watershed: The impact of small mammal poisoning on the ecohydrology of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Wilson

Smith

2014

AMBIO

115

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“…If soil bulk density in the undercanopy is lower, it may require less energy for burrowing by animals, and result in greater water infiltration and soil water retention, critical to perennial shrub survival in arid environments. It is also likely that these intercanopy sites experience greater cycling and concentrations of soil nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, elements generally considered most limiting to plant growth in arid regions (Schlesinger et al, 1996;Whitford and Kay, 1999). However, differences in the absolute percent cover (annuals, perennials, and total) measured in this study should best be viewed as relative rather than absolute values.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Impacts of interrelated biotic and abiotic processes during the past 125000 years of landscape evolution in the Northern Mojave Desert, Nevada, USA

Shafer

Young

Zitzer

et al. 2007

Journal of Arid Environments

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“…These results suggest that the combined effects of disturbance and aridity select species with short life cycles, regardless of the type of growth form or life form. Two lines of evidence suggest that a 'live fast, die young' life cycle strategy should be adaptive under drought and disturbance conditions (Bazzaz, 1979;Whitford and Kay, 1999). First, it has been demonstrated that in seasonally dry and variable environments, such as the studied arid shrubland, a drought escape strategy is favoured over drought avoidance (Franks, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, greater environmental heterogeneity generated by disturbance may allow functionally different species to occupy different microhabitats within a site, thus increasing overall functional divergence (de Bello et al, 2013;Kraft et al, 2015) and decreasing the degree of phylogenetic clustering, provided that life history traits show phylogenetic signal (Pausas and Verd u, 2010;de Bello et al, 2013). Actually, it has been shown that increased disturbance by fossorial mammals causes soil heterogeneity, because inter-mound microsites have higher cover of dominant species and different microclimatic conditions compared with mound microsites (Whitford and Kay, 1999). Secondly, competition or facilitation at the inter-mound microsites between closely related taxa might lead to reduced trait similarity (Cavender-Bares et al, 2009;Spasojevic and Suding, 2012;McIntire and Fajardo, 2014), hence reducing functional convergence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been suggested that mounds of S. cyanus may drive the expansion of exotic species through an increase in soil nutrient availability (Torres-D ıaz et al, 2012). However, soil from S. cyanus mounds and soil from microsites without the influence of S. cyanus showed no difference in pH, electrical conductivity, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium or organic matter (Contreras et al, 1993;Whitford and Kay, 1999). This suggests that the effects of disturbance by S. cyanus are mainly mediated by physical phenomena (i.e.…”

Section: Disturbance Gradientmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disturbance by an endemic rodent in an arid shrubland is a habitat filter: effects on plant invasion and taxonomical, functional and phylogenetic community structure

Escobedo

Ríos

Salgado‐Luarte

et al. 2017

Ann Bot

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Background and Aims Disturbance often drives plant invasion and may modify community assembly. However, little is known about how these modifications of community patterns occur in terms of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic structure. This study evaluated in an arid shrubland the influence of disturbance by an endemic rodent on community functional divergence and phylogenetic structure as well as on plant invasion. It was expected that disturbance would operate as a habitat filter favouring exotic species with short life cycles.Methods Sixteen plots were sampled along a disturbance gradient caused by the endemic fossorial rodent Spalacopus cyanus, measuring community parameters and estimating functional divergence for life history traits (functional dispersion index) and the relative contribution to functional divergence of exotic and native species. The phylogenetic signal (Pagel's lambda) and phylogenetic community structure (mean phylogenetic distance and mean nearest taxon phylogenetic distance) were also estimated. The use of a continuous approach to the disturbance gradient allowed the identification of non-linear relationships between disturbance and community parameters.Key Results The relationship between disturbance and both species richness and abundance was positive for exotic species and negative for native species. Disturbance modified community composition, and exotic species were associated with more disturbed sites. Disturbance increased trait convergence, which resulted in phylogenetic clustering because traits showed a significant phylogenetic signal. The relative contribution of exotic species to functional divergence increased, while that of natives decreased, with disturbance. Exotic and native species were not phylogenetically distinct.Conclusions Disturbance by rodents in this arid shrubland constitutes a habitat filter over phylogeny-dependent life history traits, leading to phylogenetic clustering, and drives invasion by favouring species with short life cycles. Results can be explained by high phenotypic and phylogenetic resemblance between exotic and native species. The use of continuous gradients when studying the effects of disturbance on community assembly is advocated.

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Biopedturbation by mammals in deserts: a review

Cited by 272 publications

References 0 publications

The pika and the watershed: The impact of small mammal poisoning on the ecohydrology of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

The pika and the watershed: The impact of small mammal poisoning on the ecohydrology of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Impacts of interrelated biotic and abiotic processes during the past 125000 years of landscape evolution in the Northern Mojave Desert, Nevada, USA

Disturbance by an endemic rodent in an arid shrubland is a habitat filter: effects on plant invasion and taxonomical, functional and phylogenetic community structure

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