Exotic wild boars and native wild guinea pigs maintain plant diversity in Argentinean coastal grasslands by decreasing plant dominance

IF 2.2 3区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ECOLOGY

Journal of Vegetation Science Pub Date : 2024-07-11 DOI:10.1111/jvs.13287

Camila Rocca, Jesús Pascual, Clara Diaz de Astarloa, Pedro Daleo, Oscar Iribarne, Juan Alberti

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Question

In productive grasslands highly dominated by a single plant species, herbivores can promote overall plant diversity. Wild boars (Sus scrofa) often decrease species diversity, alter regeneration and change community composition in their native and invader ranges while digging and uprooting vegetation for feeding. In addition, wild guinea pigs (Cavia aperea), a small vertebrate herbivore native to South America, concentrate their feeding activities in open patches where they also affect plant diversity, biomass and composition. In this context, can wild-boar disturbances promote plant diversity in herbaceous systems characterized by a highly dominant species? Can native wild guinea pigs magnify these impacts?

Location

Coastal grasslands and salt marshes of the northeastern part of the temperate Argentine pampas, that are dominated by native or exotic herbaceous species.

Methods

We first analyzed alpha- and beta-diversity of plant assemblies in three natural coastal herbaceous areas, invaded by wild boars, through samplings (comparing disturbed and undisturbed areas) and experiments (using exclosures and control plots). Then, we analyzed whether wild guinea pigs could affect patch recovery (alpha- and beta-diversity) after wild-boar disturbances in one site.

Results

Wild boars enhanced alpha-diversity (compared to undisturbed areas) but had no significant effect on beta-diversity. Nevertheless, wild guinea pigs feeding on wild-boar disturbances increased between-patch heterogeneity in species composition (i.e., beta-diversity).

Conclusion

Wild boars remove vegetation in patches that, without subsequent wild-guinea-pig herbivory, dominant species rapidly recover. Wild-guinea-pig herbivory allows different subordinate species to peak at different disturbed patches, contributing to larger species richness at larger scales in areas otherwise occupied by highly dominant plant species. In a wider context, these results imply that the joint action of different-sized exotic and native herbivores can help to maintain plant species diversity in highly plant-dominated grasslands.

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外来野猪和本地野生豚鼠通过降低植物优势保持阿根廷沿海草地的植物多样性

问题在以单一植物物种为主的高产草地上，食草动物可以促进植物的整体多样性。野猪（Sus scrofa）在其原生地和入侵地觅食时，往往会减少物种多样性、改变再生和群落组成。此外，野生豚鼠（Cavia aperea）是一种原产于南美洲的小型脊椎食草动物，它们的觅食活动集中在空旷地带，也会影响植物的多样性、生物量和组成。在这种情况下，野豚鼠的干扰能否促进以高度优势物种为特征的草本系统中的植物多样性？本地野生豚鼠是否会放大这些影响？地点阿根廷温带潘帕斯草原东北部的沿海草地和盐沼，这些草地和盐沼以本地或外来草本物种为主。方法我们首先通过取样（比较受干扰区域和未受干扰区域）和实验（使用围栏和对照地块），分析了受野猪入侵的三个天然沿海草本植物区植物组合的α-和β-多样性。然后，我们在一个地点分析了野豚鼠是否会影响野猪干扰后的斑块恢复（α-和β-多样性）。结果野猪提高了α-多样性（与未受干扰的区域相比），但对β-多样性没有显著影响。然而，以野猪扰动区为食的野生豚鼠增加了斑块间物种组成的异质性（即贝塔多样性）。结论野猪清除的植被斑块，如果没有随后的野豚鼠食草，优势物种会迅速恢复。野生几内亚猪的食草行为使不同的从属物种在不同的受干扰斑块上达到高峰，从而使原本被高度优势植物物种占据的区域在更大范围内物种更加丰富。从更广泛的角度来看，这些结果表明，不同大小的外来和本地食草动物的共同作用有助于维持高度以植物为主的草地的植物物种多样性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Vegetation Science 环境科学-林学

CiteScore

6.00

自引率

3.60%

发文量

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： The Journal of Vegetation Science publishes papers on all aspects of plant community ecology, with particular emphasis on papers that develop new concepts or methods, test theory, identify general patterns, or that are otherwise likely to interest a broad international readership. Papers may focus on any aspect of vegetation science, e.g. community structure (including community assembly and plant functional types), biodiversity (including species richness and composition), spatial patterns (including plant geography and landscape ecology), temporal changes (including demography, community dynamics and palaeoecology) and processes (including ecophysiology), provided the focus is on increasing our understanding of plant communities. The Journal publishes papers on the ecology of a single species only if it plays a key role in structuring plant communities. Papers that apply ecological concepts, theories and methods to the vegetation management, conservation and restoration, and papers on vegetation survey should be directed to our associate journal, Applied Vegetation Science journal.