loading page

Giving-up diversity (GUDiv): top-down effects of foraging decisions on local, landscape and regional biodiversity of resources
  • +1
  • Jana Eccard,
  • Clara Ferreira,
  • Andres Peredo Arce,
  • Melanie Dammhahn
Jana Eccard
University of Potsdam

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Clara Ferreira
University of Potsdam
Author Profile
Andres Peredo Arce
University of Potsdam
Author Profile
Melanie Dammhahn
Universitat Potsdam
Author Profile

Abstract

Foraging by consumers has direct effects on the community of their resource species, and may serve as a biotic filtering mechanism of diversity. Determinants of foraging behaviour may thus have cascading effects on abundance, diversity, and functional trait composition of the resource community. Here we propose giving-up diversity (GUDiv) as a novel concept and simple measure to quantify community effects of foraging at multiple spatial diversity scales. GUDiv provides a framework linking theories of adaptive foraging behaviour with community ecology. In experimental resource landscapes we showcase effects of patch residency of foraging wild rodents on α-GUDiv, ß-GUDiv and γ- GUDiv, and on functional trait composition of resources. Using GUDiv allows for prediction-based investigation of cascading indirect predation effects (ecology of fear) across multiple trophic levels, of feedbacks between functional trait composition of resource and consumer communities, and of effects of inter-individual differences among foragers on the diversity of resource communities.