Effects of increasing carrion biomass on food webs

Baruzzi, Carolina; Mason, David S.; Barton, Brandon T.; Lashley, Marcus A.

doi:10.1016/j.fooweb.2018.e00096

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Increasing carrion biomass can have nonlinear effects on (increasing) foraging efforts by insectivores [ 7 ]. In general, it is unclear how individual scavengers alter their foraging strategies in relation to carrion biomass along the continuum from single or few carcasses to mass mortalities, in addition to carcass size, and how these factors may modulate the presence of prey and predation risk for prey [ 7 , 28 ]. Understanding the carcass regime available to species, which could be described as the count, size (biomass), spatial distribution and deposition rate of carcasses [ 66 ], is crucial to understanding possible long-term, species-specific behaviour and fitness effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear the reaper: ungulate carcasses may generate an ephemeral landscape of fear for rodents

et al. 2020

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Animal carcasses provide an ephemeral pulse of nutrients for scavengers that use them. Carcass sites can increase species interactions and/or ephemeral, localized landscapes of fear for prey within the vicinity. Few studies have applied the landscape of fear to carcasses. Here, we use a mass die-off of reindeer caused by lightning in Norway to test whether rodents avoided larger scavengers (e.g. corvids and fox). We used the presence and abundance of faeces as a proxy for carcass use over the course of 2 years and found that rodents showed the strongest avoidance towards changes in raven abundance ( β = −0.469, s.e. = 0.231, p -value = 0.0429), but not fox, presumably due to greater predation risk imposed by large droves of raven. Moreover, the emergence of rodent occurrence within the carcass area corresponded well with the disappearance of raven during the second year of the study. We suggest that carcasses have the potential to shape the landscape of fear for prey, but that the overall effects of carcasses on individual fitness and populations of species ultimately depend on the carcass regime, e.g. carcass size, count, and areal extent, frequency and the scavenger guild. We discuss conservation implications and how carcass provisioning and landscapes of fear could be potentially used to manage populations and ecosystems, but that there is a gap in understanding that must first be bridged.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear the reaper: ungulate carcasses may generate an ephemeral landscape of fear for rodents

et al. 2020

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“…One of the recommendations of Spies et al's [57] study was that since mongoose exhibited a preference for unclothed over clothed pig carcases, further research on the local scavenger behaviour was required with a single clothed carrion option-more representative of real-world forensic scenarios-to validate this pattern. Further impetus for this research is that carrion ecology investigations have demonstrated that multi-carcase deployments increase carrion biomass above baseline levels, with as-yet unquantified influences on the decomposition ecosystem [75]. Accordingly, a follow-up study by du Toit et al [76] deployed a single clothed pig carcase in the same habitat and equivalent season to the Spies et al [57] study, with quantification of scavenger activity and progression of decomposition (as percentage weight loss over time).…”

Section: One or Many Carcases?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of experimental design in forensic taphonomy: moving towards forensic realism

Miles

Finaughty

Gibbon

2020

Forensic Sciences Research

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Forensic taphonomy as a discipline requires standardization to satisfy Daubert criteria for scientific data to be admissible in court. In response, there has been a shift towards quantification of methodology and estimating the post-mortem interval. Despite these advances, there are still biases and limitations within the discipline not explicitly addressed in the early stages of experimental design nor in final published works. In this article, unresolved debates with respect to the conductance and reporting of forensic taphonomic research are reviewed, beginning with the nature of experimental cadavers, human or animal analogues and their body size, and second, the forensic realism of experimental setups, specifically with respect to caging, clothing and number of carcases. Pigs, albeit imperfect, are a good model to gain a general idea of the trends that may be seen in humans in subsequent validation studies in facilities where human donors are available. To date, there is no consensus among taphonomists on the extent of the effect that body mass has on decomposition progression. More research is required with both human cadavers and non-human analogues that builds on our current knowledge of forensic taphonomy to answer these nagging questions. This will enable the discipline to make the reliable assumption that pigs and donor decomposition data can be applied to homicide cases. A suite of experimental design aspects is suggested to ensure systematic and standardized data collection across different biogeoclimatic circumstances to identify and quantify the effects of potential confounding variables. Such studies in multiple, varied biogeographic circumstances with standardized protocols, equipment and carrion will facilitate independent global validation of patterns. These factors are reviewed to show the need for adjustments in experimental design to ensure relevance and applicability of data within locally realistic forensic situations. The initiation of a global decomposition data network for forensic taphonomists is recommended. KEY POINTS Pigs are a valuable, albeit imperfect, proxy for human decomposition studies. There are few or conflicting data on effects of carcase size, carrion ecology, exclusion cages and scavengers. We recommend single, clothed, uncaged carcases for baseline research to reflect regionally specific forensic casework.

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“…Aliquots were oxidized with a persulfate solution to measure dissolved organic carbon (DOC) as evolved CO 2 and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) colorimetrically as nitrate (Doyle et al, 2004). Nitrification potential was determined colorimetrically using a modified chlorate block method optimized for microplates (Belser and Mays, 1980;Keeney and Nelson, 1982;Hart, 1994). Soil pH and electrical conductivity were measured from a soil slurry (3 g soil: 6 mL deionized water) using a handheld multi-parameter meter (Orion A329, Thermo Scientific).…”

Section: Study Area and Sample Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial changes in soil stable isotopic composition in response to carrion decomposition

2019

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Abstract. Decomposition provides a critical mechanism for returning nutrients to the surrounding environment. In terrestrial systems, animal carcass, or carrion, decomposition results in a cascade of biogeochemical changes. Soil microbial communities are stimulated, resulting in transformations of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) sourced from the decaying carrion soft tissues, changes to soil pH, electrical conductivity, and oxygen availability as microbial communities release CO2 and mineralize organic N. While many of the rapid changes to soil biogeochemistry observed during carrion decomposition return to background or starting conditions shortly after soft tissues are degraded, some biogeochemical parameters, particularly bulk soil stable δ15N isotopic composition, have the potential to exhibit prolonged perturbations, extending for several years. The goal of this study was to evaluate the lateral and vertical changes to soil stable isotopic composition 1 year after carrion decomposition in a forest ecosystem. Lateral transects extending 140 cm from three decomposition “hotspots” were sampled at 20 cm intervals, and subsurface cores were collected beneath each hotspot to a depth of 50 cm. Bulk soil stable isotopic composition (δ15N and δ13C) indicated that 1 year after complete soft tissue removal and decay, soils were significantly 15N enriched by 7.5±1.0 ‰ compared to control soils up to 60 cm from the hotspot center, and enrichment extended to a depth of 10 cm. Hotspot soils also contained 10 % more N compared to control soils, indicating that decomposition perturbs N pools. Our results demonstrate that carrion decomposition has the potential to result in long-term changes to soil biogeochemistry, up to at least 1 year after soft tissue degradation, and to contribute to bulk soil stable isotopic composition.

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Effects of increasing carrion biomass on food webs

Cited by 25 publications

References 54 publications

Fear the reaper: ungulate carcasses may generate an ephemeral landscape of fear for rodents

Fear the reaper: ungulate carcasses may generate an ephemeral landscape of fear for rodents

A review of experimental design in forensic taphonomy: moving towards forensic realism

Spatial changes in soil stable isotopic composition in response to carrion decomposition

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