Feeding Ecology and Morphology Make a Bamboo Specialist Vulnerable to Climate Change
Feeding Ecology and Morphology Make a Bamboo Specialist Vulnerable to Climate Change
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.050
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发表时间：
2017-11-06
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
Jernvall, Jukka
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Eronen, Jussi T.;Zohdy, Sarah;Jernvall, Jukka
具有饮食特征的动物可以用来将气候与特定的生态驱动因素联系起来。只有两种哺乳动物，即亚洲的大熊猫（Ailuropoda melanoleuca）和马达加斯加的大竹狐猴（Prolemur simus），会吃营养贫乏且具有机械挑战性的木本竹子的茎或树干[1-3]。尽管大竹狐猴是极度濒危物种，但古生物学证据表明，它曾经广泛分布[4,5]。在这里，综合形态学、古生物学和生态学的证据，我们预测了气候变化对大竹狐猴的影响。大熊猫和大竹狐猴都显示出共同的诊断性牙齿特征，表明它们以竹子为食，从而为化石记录中保存的饮食提供了一个生态计量指标[6,7]。对生活种群的竹子摄食分析表明，竹秆仅在旱季消耗，目前在旱季最短的地区发现了较大的竹狐猴。相比之下，大竹狐猴的古生物所在地有最长的旱季。未来的预测表明，许多现在较大的竹狐猴种群将经历漫长的旱季，这与只发现较大的竹狐猴化石的地方相似。虽然丰富的食物，如竹子，可以让喂养专家茁壮成长，但即使是季节性的适度变化，也可能超出较大的竹狐猴坚持其机械要求的食物来源的能力。将物种分布的已知变化与高分辨率的生态和历史数据相结合，有助于识别灭绝风险。
Animals with dietary specializations can be used to link climate to specific ecological drivers of endangerment. Only two mammals, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in Asia and the greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus) in Madagascar, consume the nutritionally poor and mechanically challenging culm or trunk of woody bamboos [1-3]. Even though the greater bamboo lemur is critically endangered, paleontological evidence shows that it was once broadly distributed [4, 5]. Here, integrating morphological, paleontological, and ecological evidence, we project the effects of climate change on greater bamboo lemurs. Both the giant panda and the greater bamboo lemur are shown to share diagnostic dental features indicative of a bamboo diet, thereby providing an ecometric indicator [6, 7] of diet preserved in the fossil record. Analyses of bamboo feeding in living populations show that bamboo culm is consumed only during the dry season and that the greater bamboo lemur is currently found in regions with the shortest dry season. In contrast, paleontological localities of the greater bamboo lemurs have the longest dry seasons. Future projections show that many presentday greater bamboo lemur populations will experience prolonged dry seasons similar to those of the localities where only fossils of the greater bamboo lemur are found. Whereas abundant foods such as bamboo allow feeding specialists to thrive, even a moderate change in seasonality may outstrip the capacity of greater bamboo lemurs to persist on their mechanically demanding food source. Coupling known changes in species distribution with high-resolution ecological and historical data helps to identify extinction risks.