Diet selection variation of a large herbivore in a feeding experiment with increasing species numbers and different plant functional group combinations

作者：Wang, Ling; Wang, Deli^*; Liu, Jushan; Huang, Yue; Hodgkinson, Ken C.

来源：Acta Oecologica, 2011, 37(3): 263-268.

DOI：10.1016/j.actao.2011.02.010

• Diet preference
• Foraging selectivity
• Foraging strategy
• Plant species richness
• Sheep

The grazing of domestic herbivores affects the biodiversity of rangeland. Knowledge on the feedback of changed plant diversity on diet selection by domestic herbivores is poor even though it is at the core of the effects of herbivores on biodiversity of rangeland. We investigated the influence of increasing species numbers and different plant functional group combinations on the dynamics of diet preference and foraging selectivity by sheep. Sheep were given 16 consecutive meals at each sequential level of plant species richness. Three combinations of species, selected for functional types, were presented to sheep. The results showed that sheep did not usually maintain stable diet preference patterns for the 16 consecutive meals of the plant species combinations offered. The magnitude of meal to meal variation in the preference index for each species increased significantly with plant species richness. There was no obvious effect of post-ingestive learning on the meal variation in diet preference. The magnitude of sheep foraging selectivity within each meal significantly reduced with plant species richness. These results indicated that, when plant diversity was high, the diet selection pattern of herbivore may be more beneficial to maintaining high plant diversity. Thus, there may be a weak positive feedback between plant species richness and herbivore foraging. We suggested that increasing plant diversity, especially for plant functional group diversity, can reduce herbivore selectivity and promote more uniform use of different plant species in rangeland.

• 出版日期2011-6
• 单位东北师范大学; CSIRO