Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/11000/31161
Outdoor recreation alters terrestrial vertebrate scavenger assemblage and carrion removal in a protected
Mediterranean wetland
View/Open: 12 - Animal Conservation - 2023.pdf
389,54 kB
Adobe PDF
Share:
This resource is restricted
Title: Outdoor recreation alters terrestrial vertebrate scavenger assemblage and carrion removal in a protected
Mediterranean wetland |
Authors: Orihuela Torres, Adrian Antonio ![](/image/ORCID.jpg) Sebastián-González, E. Pérez-García, Juan Manuel |
Editor: Wiley |
Department: Departamentos de la UMH::Biología Aplicada |
Issue Date: 2023-01-02 |
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/11000/31161 |
Abstract:
Outdoor recreation has increased in recent decades, with an intensification after the
COVID-19 lockdown. Previous studies have shown that disturbances from this
activity may affect species behaviour and fitness, but its effect on ecological processes
has been overlooked. Here, we test the impact of outdoor recreation on terrestrial
vertebrate scavenger assemblage and scavenging patterns in El Hondo Natural
Park, a Mediterranean wetland located in south-eastern Spain. We placed 185 carcasses
monitored with camera traps between February 2020 and May 2021 in two
areas: ‘public access area’, where visitors can freely access and carry out outdoor
recreation, and ‘restricted area’, where visitors are not allowed. Our results showed
that outdoor recreation altered the scavenger assemblage composition, especially
affecting large species such as raptors. Non-native species scavenged almost four
times more often on carcasses in public access areas than in the restricted areas,
showing that human activities promote the presence of non-native species. Furthermore,
vertebrates completely consumed 68.2% of the carcasses in the restricted
area, decreasing to 46.7% in the public access area. In the restricted area, consumption
time was shorter (111.8 vs. 157.5 h) and consumed biomass by vertebrate
scavengers was larger (73.9 vs. 52.2%) than in public access area, evidencing that
outdoor recreation also affects scavenging processes. Our study shows that outdoor
recreation profoundly alters not only the scavenger assemblage but also key ecological
processes such as carrion removal. This highlights the urgency of regulating
tourism and maintaining restricted areas to preserve biodiversity and ecological
processes, especially in highly anthropized landscapes.
|
Keywords/Subjects: camera trap carcass human disturbance non-native species protected area raptor scavenger tourism |
Knowledge area: CDU: Ciencias puras y naturales: Biología: Ecología general y biodiversidad |
Type of document: application/pdf |
Access rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12848 |
Appears in Collections: Artículos Biología Aplicada
|
???jsp.display-item.text9???