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大型柱状仙人掌，如仙人掌（Carnegiea gigantea）是许多生态系统的突出特征。由于其广泛分布和大量生产的大型多汁果实，它们在构建食物网和生态系统中起着重要作用。这项研究评估了在亚利桑那州和墨西哥索诺兰沙漠的沙漠鸟类群落中，壁虎果作为食物和水资源的重要性。仙人掌果实中自然存在的碳和氢稳定同位素特征被用来追踪营养物质和水分从植物进入鸟类群落的运动。该项目将为仙人掌在干旱和半干旱生态系统中作为消费资源的作用提供新的见解，并为仙人掌和食用其果实的动物之间的果实和营养转移速率提供直接测量。

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.