Nutritional correlates of koala persistence in a low-density population
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Stalenberg, Eleanor; Wallis, Ian R.; Cunningham, Ross B.; Allen, Chris; Foley, William J.
Description
It is widely postulated that nutritional factors drive bottom-up, resource-based patterns in herbivore ecology and distribution. There is, however, much controversy over the roles of different plant constituents and how these influence individual herbivores and herbivore populations. The density of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations varies widely and many attribute population trends to variation in the nutritional quality of the eucalypt leaves of their diet, but there is little...[Show more]
dc.contributor.author | Stalenberg, Eleanor | |
---|---|---|
dc.contributor.author | Wallis, Ian R. | |
dc.contributor.author | Cunningham, Ross B. | |
dc.contributor.author | Allen, Chris | |
dc.contributor.author | Foley, William J. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2015-11-02T01:18:13Z | |
dc.date.available | 2015-11-02T01:18:13Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 1932-6203 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1885/16201 | |
dc.description.abstract | It is widely postulated that nutritional factors drive bottom-up, resource-based patterns in herbivore ecology and distribution. There is, however, much controversy over the roles of different plant constituents and how these influence individual herbivores and herbivore populations. The density of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations varies widely and many attribute population trends to variation in the nutritional quality of the eucalypt leaves of their diet, but there is little evidence to support this hypothesis. We used a nested design that involved sampling of trees at two spatial scales to investigate how leaf chemistry influences free-living koalas from a low-density population in south east New South Wales, Australia. Using koala faecal pellets as a proxy for koala visitation to trees, we found an interaction between toxins and nutrients in leaves at a small spatial scale, whereby koalas preferred trees with leaves of higher concentrations of available nitrogen but lower concentrations of sideroxylonals (secondary metabolites found exclusively in eucalypts) compared to neighbouring trees of the same species. We argue that taxonomic and phenotypic diversity is likely to be important when foraging in habitats of low nutritional quality in providing diet choice to tradeoff nutrients and toxins and minimise movement costs. Our findings suggest that immediate nutritional concerns are an important priority of folivores in low-quality habitats and imply that nutritional limitations play an important role in constraining folivore populations. We show that, with a careful experimental design, it is possible to make inferences about populations of herbivores that exist at extremely low densities and thus achieve a better understanding about how plant composition influences herbivore ecology and persistence. | |
dc.description.sponsorship | IW and WF received a grant from New South Wales (NSW) Department of Environment, Climate Change & Water. | |
dc.format | 21 pages | |
dc.publisher | Public Library of Science | |
dc.rights | © 2014 Stalenberg et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
dc.source | PLoS ONE | |
dc.subject | animals | |
dc.subject | eucalyptus | |
dc.subject | feces | |
dc.subject | herbivory | |
dc.subject | models, theoretical | |
dc.subject | new south wales | |
dc.subject | phascolarctidae | |
dc.subject | plant leaves | |
dc.subject | population density | |
dc.subject | trees | |
dc.subject | animal nutritional physiological phenomena | |
dc.subject | ecosystem | |
dc.title | Nutritional correlates of koala persistence in a low-density population | |
dc.type | Journal article | |
local.description.notes | Imported from ARIES | |
local.identifier.citationvolume | 9 | |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2014-11-02 | |
dc.date.issued | 2014-12-03 | |
local.identifier.absfor | 060208 | |
local.identifier.absfor | 060201 | |
local.identifier.absfor | 060801 | |
local.identifier.ariespublication | U3488905xPUB5079 | |
local.publisher.url | https://www.plos.org/ | |
local.type.status | Published Version | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Stalenberg, Eleanor, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, CMBE Research School of Biology, Division of Evolution, Ecology & Genetics, The Australian National University | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Wallis, Ian, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, CMBE Research School of Biology, Division of Evolution, Ecology & Genetics, The Australian National University | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Cunningham, Ross, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, CMBE Fenner School of Environment and Society, FSES General, The Australian National University | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Allen, Chris, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Australia | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Foley, William, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, CMBE Research School of Biology, Division of Evolution, Ecology & Genetics, The Australian National University | |
local.identifier.essn | 1932-6203 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.issue | 12 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage | e113930 | |
local.identifier.doi | 10.1371/journal.pone.0113930 | |
local.identifier.absseo | 960806 | |
local.identifier.absseo | 970106 | |
dc.date.updated | 2015-12-11T09:22:55Z | |
local.identifier.scopusID | 2-s2.0-84916208236 | |
local.identifier.thomsonID | 000349128700056 | |
Collections | ANU Research Publications |
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