Digestive strategies in two sympatrically occurring lagomorphs

Separation of low digestible fibres and fermentation of the digestible part of the food in the caecum is an adaptation of some small herbivores to cope with low-quality forage. The caecum content is later re-ingested as soft faeces so that the herbivore can benefit from this protein-rich material. This is known as caecotrophy and is a common phenomenon in species of leporids, although differences exist between hares and rabbits. Hares have amorphous soft faeces and the amount of soft faeces produced is smaller compared to that of rabbits. Both factors suggest that hares have smaller benefits from re-ingestion of the caecal contents compared with rabbits and, as a consequence, have a less efficient digestion (mainly of nitrogen) compared to rabbits. The assertion was tested whether digestive efficiency is different between the two herbivores and how this affects the choice of food plants in a natural situation. A feeding trial was conducted using hares and rabbits fed with diets with a range of fibre contents. Dry matter digestibility was not different, but nitrogen digestibility was lower in hares than in rabbits, indicating a less efficient digestion of protein. Both taxa showed a different response to increased fibre content in the diet. Rabbits maximized digestibility by increasing retention time of the food, hares maximized digestion rate by increasing the passage rate of the food through the digestive tract. The daily digestible nitrogen intake was higher in hares Lepus europaeus than that in rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus, indicating that hares compensated for their lower nitrogen digestibility. Hares were predicted to select for higher quality plant species in a natural situation, but they had, on average, a lower nitrogen and higher total fibre content in their diet compared to sympatrically occurring rabbits. This indicated that hares did not compensate for their lower digestive efficiency by selecting higher quality food plants. The present experiment shows that hares and rabbits have different digestive strategies to cope with low quality forage. Rabbits had a higher N-digestibility by increasing the retention time, whereas hares appeared to compensate for their lower N-digestibility by increasing the processing rate, when food quality deteriorated

The impact of insect herbivory on biogeochemical cycling in broadleaved forests varies with temperature

Herbivorous insects alter biogeochemical cycling within forests, but the magnitude of these impacts, their global variation, and drivers of this variation remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap and help improve biogeochemical models, we established a global network of 74 plots within 40 mature, undisturbed broadleaved forests. We analyzed freshly senesced and green leaves for carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and silica concentrations, foliar production and herbivory, and stand-level nutrient fluxes. We show more nutrient release by insect herbivores at non-outbreak levels in tropical forests than temperate and boreal forests, that these fluxes increase strongly with mean annual temperature, and that they exceed atmospheric deposition inputs in some localities. Thus, background levels of insect herbivory are sufficiently large to both alter ecosystem element cycling and influence terrestrial carbon cycling. Further, climate can affect interactions between natural populations of plants and herbivores with important consequences for global biogeochemical cycles across broadleaved forests

Unpreferred plants affect patch choice and spatial distribution of European brown hares

Many herbivore species prefer to forage on patches of intermediate biomass. Plant quality and forage efficiency are predicted to decrease with increasing plant standing crop which explains the lower preference of the herbivore. However, often is ignored that on the long-term, plant species composition is predicted to change with increasing plant standing crop. The amount of low-quality, unpreferred food plants increases with increasing plant standing crop. In the present study the effects of unpreferred plants on patch choice and distribution of European brown hare in a salt-marsh system were studied. In one experiment, unpreferred plants were removed from plots. In the second experiment, plots were planted with different densities of an unpreferred artificial plant. Removal of unpreferred plants increased hare-grazing pressure more than fivefold compared to unmanipulated plots. Planting of unpreferred plants reduced hare-grazing pressure, with a significant reduction of grazing already occurring at low unpreferred plant density. Spatial distribution of hares within this salt-marsh system was related to spatial arrangement of unpreferred plants. Hare-grazing intensity decreased strongly with increasing abundance of unpreferred plants despite a high abundance of principal food plants. The results of this study indicate that plant species replacement is an important factor determining patch choice and spatial distribution of hares next to changing plant quality. Increasing abundance of unpreferred plant species can strengthen the decreasing patch quality with increasing standing crop and can decrease grazing intensity when preferred food plants are still abundantly present

Appendix B. A table showing shift in plant species composition in the low salt marsh exclosures.

A table showing shift in plant species composition in the low salt marsh exclosures

Appendix A. A table showing shift in plant species composition in the high salt marsh exclosures.

A table showing shift in plant species composition in the high salt marsh exclosures

Top-Down Control of Small Herbivores on Salt-Marsh Vegetation along a Productivity Gradient

Exploitation theory predicts strongest plant–herbivore interactions at sites of intermediate productivity. Recent studies illustrate the importance of top-down effects by small to intermediate-sized herbivores in structuring salt-marsh communities. How long-term effects of herbivory are modified by productivity of the system is a largely unexplored area. We studied how herbivory by geese and hares affected plant species replacement by erecting exclosures along a natural productivity gradient in a temperate salt-marsh system. After seven years, the largest shifts in species composition were observed when both hares and geese were excluded from plots. Only excluding geese did not have a large impact on species replacement, indicating that geese alone did not control the vegetation. Herbivory slowed down succession by retarding the establishment and spread of late-successional species on the low salt marsh. Effects of herbivory were less clear on the high marsh. Vegetation change after excluding herbivores was most pronounced in the most unproductive regions of the salt marsh. As a result, different successional trajectories emerged when herbivores were absent or present at the onset of salt-marsh succession. At sites of intermediate productivity, where grazing pressure was highest, no effect of herbivory on species composition was found. We hypothesize that the high dominance of grazing tolerant species at these sites retarded the invasion of late-successional species. The intensity of herbivory did not accurately predict the importance of herbivory in structuring plant communities. To understand herbivore effects along productivity gradients, the selectivity patterns of the herbivores and the bottom-up effects of plants on these interactions need to be considered.