This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00893-7. This is version 1 of this Preprint.
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Abstract
Animal carcass decomposition is an often-overlooked component of nutrient cycles. The importance of carcass decomposition for increasing nutrient availability has been demonstrated in several ecosystems, but impacts in arid lands are poorly understood. In a protected high desert landscape in Argentina, puma predation of vicuñas is a main driver of carcass distribution. Here, we sampled puma kill sites across three habitats (plains, canyons, and meadows) to evaluate the impacts of vicuña carcass and stomach decomposition on soil and plant nutrients up to 5 years after carcass deposition. Soil beneath both carcasses and stomachs had significantly higher soil nutrient content than adjacent reference sites in arid, nutrient-poor plains and canyons, but not in moist, nutrient-rich meadows; stomachs had greater effects on soil nutrients than carcasses. These patterns did not translate into higher plant N concentrations at kill sites, though such responses could have occurred immediately following carcass deposition, which our study did not capture. The biogeochemical effects of puma kills persisted for several years and increased over time, indicating that kills do not create ephemeral nutrient pulses, but can have lasting effects on the distribution of soil nutrients. Comparison to broader spatial patterns of predation risk reveals that puma predation of vicuñas is more likely in nutrient-rich sites, but carcasses have the greatest effects on soil nutrients in nutrient-poor environments, such that carcasses increase localized heterogeneity by generating nutrient hotspots in less productive environments. Predation and carcass decomposition may thus be important overlooked factors influencing ecosystem functioning in arid environments.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2K30X
Subjects
Desert Ecology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Zoology
Keywords
carcasses, Decomposition, predation, Puma concolor, Vicugna vicugna, high Andes, biogeochemical hotspots, nutrient cycling, decomposition, predation, Puma concolor, Vicugna vicugna, high Andes, biogeochemical hotspots, nutrient cycling
Dates
Published: 2023-05-30 01:55
License
CC-By Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Additional Metadata
Language:
English
Conflict of interest statement:
None
Data and Code Availability Statement:
Data are available upon request, and will be made publicly available upon publication.
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.