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The Relative Concentrations of Nutrients and Toxins Dictate Feeding by a Vertebrate Browser, the Greater Glider Petauroides volans
Although ecologists believe that vertebrate herbivores must select a diet that allows them to meet their nutritional requirements, while avoiding intoxication by plant secondary metabolites, this is remarkably difficult to show. A long series of field and laboratory experiments means that we have a...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4418660/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25938422 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121584 |
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author | Jensen, Lora M. Wallis, Ian R. Foley, William J. |
author_facet | Jensen, Lora M. Wallis, Ian R. Foley, William J. |
author_sort | Jensen, Lora M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Although ecologists believe that vertebrate herbivores must select a diet that allows them to meet their nutritional requirements, while avoiding intoxication by plant secondary metabolites, this is remarkably difficult to show. A long series of field and laboratory experiments means that we have a good understanding of the factors that affect feeding by leaf-eating marsupials. This knowledge and the natural intraspecific variation in Eucalyptus chemistry allowed us to test the hypothesis that the feeding decisions of greater gliders (Petauroides volans) depend on the concentrations of available nitrogen (incorporating total nitrogen, dry matter digestibility and tannins) and of formylated phloroglucinol compounds (FPCs), potent antifeedants unique to Eucalyptus. We offered captive greater gliders foliage from two species of Eucalyptus, E. viminalis and E. melliodora, which vary naturally in their concentrations of available nitrogen and FPCs. We then measured the amount of foliage eaten by each glider and compared this with our laboratory analyses of foliar total nitrogen, available nitrogen and FPCs for each tree offered. The concentration of FPCs was the main factor that determined how much gliders ate of E. viminalis and E. melliodora, but in gliders fed E. viminalis the concentration of available nitrogen was also a significant influence. In other words, greater gliders ate E. viminalis leaves with a particular combination of FPCs and available nitrogen that maximised the nutritional gain but minimised their ingestion of toxins. In contrast, the concentration of total nitrogen was not correlated with feeding. This study is among the first to empirically show that browsing herbivores select a diet that balances the potential gain (available nutrients) and the potential costs (plant secondary chemicals) of eating leaves. The major implication of the study is that it is essential to identify the limiting nutrients and relevant toxins in a system in order to understand feeding behaviour. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4418660 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-44186602015-05-12 The Relative Concentrations of Nutrients and Toxins Dictate Feeding by a Vertebrate Browser, the Greater Glider Petauroides volans Jensen, Lora M. Wallis, Ian R. Foley, William J. PLoS One Research Article Although ecologists believe that vertebrate herbivores must select a diet that allows them to meet their nutritional requirements, while avoiding intoxication by plant secondary metabolites, this is remarkably difficult to show. A long series of field and laboratory experiments means that we have a good understanding of the factors that affect feeding by leaf-eating marsupials. This knowledge and the natural intraspecific variation in Eucalyptus chemistry allowed us to test the hypothesis that the feeding decisions of greater gliders (Petauroides volans) depend on the concentrations of available nitrogen (incorporating total nitrogen, dry matter digestibility and tannins) and of formylated phloroglucinol compounds (FPCs), potent antifeedants unique to Eucalyptus. We offered captive greater gliders foliage from two species of Eucalyptus, E. viminalis and E. melliodora, which vary naturally in their concentrations of available nitrogen and FPCs. We then measured the amount of foliage eaten by each glider and compared this with our laboratory analyses of foliar total nitrogen, available nitrogen and FPCs for each tree offered. The concentration of FPCs was the main factor that determined how much gliders ate of E. viminalis and E. melliodora, but in gliders fed E. viminalis the concentration of available nitrogen was also a significant influence. In other words, greater gliders ate E. viminalis leaves with a particular combination of FPCs and available nitrogen that maximised the nutritional gain but minimised their ingestion of toxins. In contrast, the concentration of total nitrogen was not correlated with feeding. This study is among the first to empirically show that browsing herbivores select a diet that balances the potential gain (available nutrients) and the potential costs (plant secondary chemicals) of eating leaves. The major implication of the study is that it is essential to identify the limiting nutrients and relevant toxins in a system in order to understand feeding behaviour. Public Library of Science 2015-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4418660/ /pubmed/25938422 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121584 Text en © 2015 Jensen et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Jensen, Lora M. Wallis, Ian R. Foley, William J. The Relative Concentrations of Nutrients and Toxins Dictate Feeding by a Vertebrate Browser, the Greater Glider Petauroides volans |
title | The Relative Concentrations of Nutrients and Toxins Dictate Feeding by a Vertebrate Browser, the Greater Glider Petauroides volans
|
title_full | The Relative Concentrations of Nutrients and Toxins Dictate Feeding by a Vertebrate Browser, the Greater Glider Petauroides volans
|
title_fullStr | The Relative Concentrations of Nutrients and Toxins Dictate Feeding by a Vertebrate Browser, the Greater Glider Petauroides volans
|
title_full_unstemmed | The Relative Concentrations of Nutrients and Toxins Dictate Feeding by a Vertebrate Browser, the Greater Glider Petauroides volans
|
title_short | The Relative Concentrations of Nutrients and Toxins Dictate Feeding by a Vertebrate Browser, the Greater Glider Petauroides volans
|
title_sort | relative concentrations of nutrients and toxins dictate feeding by a vertebrate browser, the greater glider petauroides volans |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4418660/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25938422 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121584 |
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