Study on trophic niche characteristics of plateau zokor(Eospalax baileyi)in Alpine M eadows based on stable isotope technique
[Objective]The analysis of the characteristics of rodent nutritional niche can not only help us to under-stand the nutrient layer occupied by animals,but also reveal the changes of rodent food resources utilization at differ-ent time scales.[Method]In this study,the plateau zokor(Eospalax baileyi)inhabiting the alpine meadow in the east-ern part of Qilian Mountain was selected,and the stable isotope mass balance mixed model was used to analyze the foraging information and nutritional niche characteristics of plateau zokor at different time scales.[Result]The results showed that the main food intake of plateau zokor was the same in different tissues,but the contribution rate in diet was different.Among them,the aboveground part of Taraxacum mongolicum had the highest contribution rate in blood(24.33%),muscle(19.63%)and hair(14.00%),while the underground part of Potentilla anserina had the highest contribution rate in different tissues,which were 66.01%,17.79%and 10.72%,respectively.In different tis-sues,the changes of food intake and nutritional niche width were the same.In the aboveground part of plants,the re-sults were as follows:blood(8 species,1.742)<muscle(10 species,2.049)<hair(13 species,2.227)tissue.In the underground part of plants:blood(5 species,1.100)<muscle(14 species,2.370)<hair(15 species,2.469).The niche overlap of aboveground and underground plants in the blood tissue of plateau zokor(1.100)was much lower than that in muscle(0.447)and hair(0.566).[Conclusion]The above results show that among the foraging information of different time scales represented by each tissue of plateau zokor,the number of ingested species in short-term eating habits(blood tissue)is less and the niche width is smaller.On the other hand,in the long-term diet(muscle and hair tissue),there are a wide variety of foods and a wider niche width.And the niche overlap of aboveg-round and underground plants in the short-term foraging habits of plateau zokor is much lower than that of long-term foraging habits.In view of the foraging habits of plateau zokor,we suggest that for the areas with serious damage to plateau zokor,the proportion of high quality food in the plant community of plateau zokor shall be reduced by sowing Gramineae and eliminating forbs,so as to achieve the purpose of preventing and controlling the harm of plateau zokor.
alpine meadowplateau zokordietarytrophic nichestable isotopebayesian mixing model
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
