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Carbon isotope differences between grassland and savanna herbivores reveal environmentally driven rather than phylogenetically conserved niches
Author(s) -
Malindie S.,
Buschke F.T.,
Codron D.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/jzo.12762
Subject(s) - biome , grassland , herbivore , ecological niche , biology , ecology , habitat , vegetation (pathology) , isotopes of carbon , δ13c , range (aeronautics) , niche , isotope analysis , mammal , stable isotope ratio , ecosystem , total organic carbon , materials science , pathology , quantum mechanics , composite material , medicine , physics
Abstract Stable isotope analyses provide insights into large herbivore diets. Carbon isotopes are particularly useful for analysing diet given their ability to reflect C 3 or C 4 photosynthetic pathways and, therefore, distinguish between browser and grazer diets. Although isotopes are useful for comparing diets across a range of spatial and temporal scales, most studies have focused on either interspecific differences within habitats or single species averages across their geographic range. In this study, we use both new and existing carbon isotopic data to compare large mammal herbivore diets across habitat types in southern and east Africa. We examined whether species in the grassland biome of central South Africa had the same carbon isotopic signatures as counterparts from savannas in southern and east Africa. Within the grassland biome, isotopic signatures from faecal samples were strongly correlated with signatures from bone and dentine collagen samples, supporting our approach of comparing faecal data from the grasslands with savanna data obtained mainly through analysis of skeletal materials. Regression analysis comparing grasslands and savannas confirmed that species' isotopic niches within communities were conserved across different geographic regions. However, herbivore δ 13 C values were generally lower in the grassland compared with the savanna biome, highlighted particularly by the lower δ 13 C values of several grazer species (but not browsers), indicating greater consumption of C 3 vegetation in grasslands. This finding is counter‐intuitive and suggests that non‐woody C 3 vegetation may be an important component of grazer diets in the grassland biome. We speculate on various environmental factors, related to food abundance that could underline the pattern.

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