ANI | Updated: 06 Jan 2023 at 16:00 IST
Los Angeles [US], Jan 6 (ANI): They found that the decline of prairie dogs, combined with unusually high rainfall in 2018, led to dramatic changes in the ecosystem. According to the researchers, the findings highlight the serious conservation challenges posed by boom-and-bust disease cycles in the remaining grasslands of the Great Plains. When a wild plague outbreak decimated black-tailed prairie dog populations in the Thunder Basin National Grassland in 2017, researchers saw an opportunity for a “natural experiment” to investigate the impact of the extinction of rodents on plants and other wildlife in this area of northeastern Wyoming, according to research published in the journal “Ecological Applications.” “We found that prairie dogs play a critical role for associated vegetation and wildlife communities in this system, creating important grassland habitat for numerous species while serving as prey for a variety of predators,” says Courtney Duchardt, an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management at Oklahoma State University who led the project. research as a Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming. ecology student “Our research highlights how precipitation can interact with disease-induced loss of a keystone species to induce drastic and rapid changes in wildlife communities.” for its ability to compete with livestock for fodder. They are also highly susceptible to wild plague, a non-native pathogen introduced to North America in the early 1900s. The combined pressures of disease, habitat loss, and control efforts that have reduced rodent populations have also resulting in a decline in associated wildlife species. These include birds such as owls, mountain birds and raptors, as well as swift foxes, coyotes and badgers. This study, conducted between 2015 and 2019 in the Thunder Basin grasslands, may be the first to specifically examine the multispecies impacts of a large-scale plague outbreak, which reduced the area covered by dog colonies from nearly 25,000 acres of grassland to only about 125 in the study area. The 2017 outbreak was followed by abnormally high rainfall in 2018, which caused vegetation to grow quickly and taller without the presence of prairie dogs.
The researchers found that upland birds, birds that thrive when vegetation is kept shorter by prairie dogs, almost disappeared from the study area, while migratory songbirds such as the skylark, which prefer the higher vegetation, they increased in number. hawks, badgers and swift foxes declined dramatically as their prey base crashed. The researchers say that while the plants and animals of the Great Plains grasslands have historically been subject to variations in precipitation and other factors, the boom-and-bust cycles are likely to “further destabilize” the ecosystems. Even this could be a challenge for livestock managers. During the boom part of the cycle, the ability of prairie dogs to compete with livestock for available forage makes rodents a nuisance. But the bust part of the cycle isn’t ideal for producers either. “Although reduced prairie dog numbers increase vegetation biomass, the unpredictability of these cycles makes capitalizing on additional forage difficult for agricultural producers,” the researchers wrote. “Essentially, the undesirability and unpredictability of these cycles is potentially the one thing that most, if not all, stakeholders can agree on.” the management of pastures both for the conservation of livestock and biodiversity. (ANI)