Research starter grant

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Large columnar cacti, such as the saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), are prominent features of many ecosystems. Because of their extensive distribution and abundant production of large succulent fruit they play an important role in structuring food webs and ecosystems. This research assesses the importance of the saguaro's fruit as a food and water resource to a desert bird community in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and Mexico. Naturally occurring carbon and hydrogen stable isotope signatures of the saguaro's fruit are used to track the movement of nutrients and water from the plant into the bird community. This project will provide new insight the role of cacti as consumer resources in arid and semi-arid ecosystems and provide direct measurements of frugivory and nutrient transfer rates between the saguaro and animals that consume its fruits.