Trophic rewilding revives biotic resistance to shrub invasion
Trophic rewilding revives biotic resistance to shrub invasion
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DOI：
10.1038/s41559-019-1068-y
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发表时间：
2020-01-13
影响因子：
16.8
通讯作者：
Pringle, Robert M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Guyton, Jennifer A.;Pansu, Johan;Pringle, Robert M.
营养性野化试图通过用大型动物重新填充退化的生态系统来恢复它们，从而重新建立强有力的自上而下的相互作用。然而，很少有测试这些举措是否可以恢复生态系统的结构和功能，以及在什么时间尺度上。在这里，我们表明，战争引起的莫桑比克戈龙戈萨国家公园大型哺乳动物种群的崩溃加剧了木本入侵灌木含羞草-被认为是世界上100个最严重的入侵物种之一-和一个十年的协调营养恢复这种入侵战前的基线水平。含羞草的出现在1972年至2015年期间增加，这一时期包括莫桑比克内战期间大型食草动物几乎灭绝。从2015年到2019年，随着有蹄类动物生物量的恢复，含羞草的丰度下降。DNA metabarcoding显示，反刍动物食草动物喂了大量的含羞草，实验围栏证实了哺乳动物食草动物的因果作用，包含灌木入侵。我们的研究结果提供了机械的证据表明，营养野化迅速恢复了一个关键的生态系统功能（生物抵抗臭名昭著的木本入侵者），强调了恢复生态健康的潜力退化protected areas.The内战在莫桑比克导致了大型哺乳动物种群的崩溃和入侵植物含羞草的蔓延。实验围栏和DNA元编码被用来显示如何营养野化，因为战争结束后，减少了入侵人口。
Trophic rewilding seeks to rehabilitate degraded ecosystems by repopulating them with large animals, thereby re-establishing strong top-down interactions. Yet there are very few tests of whether such initiatives can restore ecosystem structure and functions, and on what timescales. Here we show that war-induced collapse of large-mammal populations in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park exacerbated woody encroachment by the invasive shrub Mimosa pigra-considered one of the world's 100 worst invasive species-and that one decade of concerted trophic rewilding restored this invasion to pre-war baseline levels. Mimosa occurrence increased between 1972 and 2015, a period encompassing the near extirpation of large herbivores during the Mozambican Civil War. From 2015 to 2019, mimosa abundance declined as ungulate biomass recovered. DNA metabarcoding revealed that ruminant herbivores fed heavily on mimosa, and experimental exclosures confirmed the causal role of mammalian herbivory in containing shrub encroachment. Our results provide mechanistic evidence that trophic rewilding has rapidly revived a key ecosystem function (biotic resistance to a notorious woody invader), underscoring the potential for restoring ecological health in degraded protected areas.The civil war in Mozambique led to the collapse of large-mammal populations and the spread of the invasive plant Mimosa pigra. Experimental exclosures and DNA metabarcoding are used to show how trophic rewilding since the end of the war has reduced the invasive population.