| Title: | Cascading effects of a disease outbreak in a remote protected area |
| Author(s): | Monk JD; Smith JA; Donadio E; Perrig PL; Crego RD; Fileni M; Bidder O; Lambertucci SA; Pauli JN; Schmitz OJ; Middleton AD; |
| Address: | "School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, University of California - Davis, Davis, California, USA. Fundacion Rewilding Argentina, Los Antiguos, Santa Cruz, Argentina. Grupo de Investigaciones en Biologia de la Conservacion, INIBIOMA - CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina. Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, Virginia, USA. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1461-0248 (Electronic) 1461-023X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Disease outbreaks induced by humans increasingly threaten wildlife communities worldwide. Like predators, pathogens can be key top-down forces in ecosystems, initiating trophic cascades that may alter food webs. An outbreak of mange in a remote Andean protected area caused a dramatic population decline in a mammalian herbivore (the vicuna), creating conditions to test the cascading effects of disease on the ecological community. By comparing a suite of ecological measurements to pre-disease baseline records, we demonstrate that mange restructured tightly linked trophic interactions previously driven by a mammalian predator (the puma). Following the mange outbreak, scavenger (Andean condor) occurrence in the ecosystem declined sharply and plant biomass and cover increased dramatically in predation refuges where herbivory was historically concentrated. The evidence shows that a disease-induced trophic cascade, mediated by vicuna density, could supplant the predator-induced trophic cascade, mediated by vicuna behaviour, thereby transforming the Andean ecosystem" |
| Keywords: | Animals Disease Outbreaks/veterinary *Ecosystem Food Chain Humans Mammals *Mite Infestations Predatory Behavior Puma concolor Sarcoptic mange Trophic cascades Vicugna vicugna Vultur gryphus disease high Andes; |
| Notes: | "MedlineMonk, Julia D Smith, Justine A Donadio, Emiliano Perrig, Paula L Crego, Ramiro D Fileni, Martin Bidder, Owen Lambertucci, Sergio A Pauli, Jonathan N Schmitz, Oswald J Middleton, Arthur D eng 0725-2014/Proyectos de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica/ Rufford Foundation/ The Devonwood Foundation/ Project 04/B227/Universidad Nacional de Comahue/ Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association/ Cleveland Metroparks/ Association of Zoos and Aquariums/ Conservation, Research, and Educational Opportunities International/ University of Wisconsin - Madison/ University of California Berkeley/ Wildlife Conservation Society Argentina/ University of Wyoming/ Denver Zoological Foundation/ Institute for Biospheric Studies, Yale University/ Lincoln Park Zoo/ Idea Wild/ Yale University/ National Geographic Society/ Letter England 2022/02/18 Ecol Lett. 2022 May; 25(5):1152-1163. doi: 10.1111/ele.13983. Epub 2022 Feb 17" |
