RUI: Mammalian Herbivores as Consumers and Fertilizers: Consequences for Community Structure and Ecosystem Dynamics

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Prop #: 9981663Title: Mammalian Herbivores as Consumers and Fertilizers - Consequences For Community Structure and Ecosystem DynamicsMammalian herbivores can be extremely influential in terrestrial systems, although they commonly have variable and often opposing effects on plant communities and ecosystems. Identifying the causes of this variation is central for efforts to understand and generalize about the effects of these herbivores in nature. This research considers two fundamentally different herbivore species along the coast of northern California, and addresses four questions: 1) Do black-tailed deer and jackrabbits have different effects on plant communities and ecosystems through their activities as consumers versus fertilizers, through the deposition of metabolic wastes? 2) Does the relative importance of consumer and fertilizer effects vary between dune and grassland habitats? 3) Do the contrasting feeding preferences of deer and jackrabbits lead to different effects on plant communities and soil fertility in the same coastal system? And 4) Through long-term browsing on a nitrogen-fixing shrub, do herbivores decrease soil fertility in a nutrient-deficient dune system? This project will make a significant contribution to understanding vertebrate-plant interactions.