Examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.

Predator-prey body mass relationships are a vital part of food webs across ecosystems and provide key information for predicting the susceptibility of carnivore populations to extinction. Despite this, there has been limited research on the minimum and maximum prey size of mammalian carnivores. With...

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Autores principales:	Marlee A Tucker, Tracey L Rogers
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/de28052dbb684bfa83eba1a85b2cf7f0
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:de28052dbb684bfa83eba1a85b2cf7f02021-11-25T06:02:56ZExamining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0106402https://doaj.org/article/de28052dbb684bfa83eba1a85b2cf7f02014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/25162695/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Predator-prey body mass relationships are a vital part of food webs across ecosystems and provide key information for predicting the susceptibility of carnivore populations to extinction. Despite this, there has been limited research on the minimum and maximum prey size of mammalian carnivores. Without information on large-scale patterns of prey mass, we limit our understanding of predation pressure, trophic cascades and susceptibility of carnivores to decreasing prey populations. The majority of studies that examine predator-prey body mass relationships focus on either a single or a subset of mammalian species, which limits the strength of our models as well as their broader application. We examine the relationship between predator body mass and the minimum, maximum and range of their prey's body mass across 108 mammalian carnivores, from weasels to baleen whales (Carnivora and Cetacea). We test whether mammals show a positive relationship between prey and predator body mass, as in reptiles and birds, as well as examine how environment (aquatic and terrestrial) and phylogenetic relatedness play a role in this relationship. We found that phylogenetic relatedness is a strong driver of predator-prey mass patterns in carnivorous mammals and accounts for a higher proportion of variance compared with the biological drivers of body mass and environment. We show a positive predator-prey body mass pattern for terrestrial mammals as found in reptiles and birds, but no relationship for aquatic mammals. Our results will benefit our understanding of trophic interactions, the susceptibility of carnivores to population declines and the role of carnivores within ecosystems.Marlee A TuckerTracey L RogersPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 8, p e106402 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Marlee A Tucker Tracey L Rogers Examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.
description	Predator-prey body mass relationships are a vital part of food webs across ecosystems and provide key information for predicting the susceptibility of carnivore populations to extinction. Despite this, there has been limited research on the minimum and maximum prey size of mammalian carnivores. Without information on large-scale patterns of prey mass, we limit our understanding of predation pressure, trophic cascades and susceptibility of carnivores to decreasing prey populations. The majority of studies that examine predator-prey body mass relationships focus on either a single or a subset of mammalian species, which limits the strength of our models as well as their broader application. We examine the relationship between predator body mass and the minimum, maximum and range of their prey's body mass across 108 mammalian carnivores, from weasels to baleen whales (Carnivora and Cetacea). We test whether mammals show a positive relationship between prey and predator body mass, as in reptiles and birds, as well as examine how environment (aquatic and terrestrial) and phylogenetic relatedness play a role in this relationship. We found that phylogenetic relatedness is a strong driver of predator-prey mass patterns in carnivorous mammals and accounts for a higher proportion of variance compared with the biological drivers of body mass and environment. We show a positive predator-prey body mass pattern for terrestrial mammals as found in reptiles and birds, but no relationship for aquatic mammals. Our results will benefit our understanding of trophic interactions, the susceptibility of carnivores to population declines and the role of carnivores within ecosystems.
format	article
author	Marlee A Tucker Tracey L Rogers
author_facet	Marlee A Tucker Tracey L Rogers
author_sort	Marlee A Tucker
title	Examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.
title_short	Examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.
title_full	Examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.
title_fullStr	Examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.
title_full_unstemmed	Examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.
title_sort	examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/de28052dbb684bfa83eba1a85b2cf7f0
work_keys_str_mv	AT marleeatucker examiningthepreymassofterrestrialandaquaticcarnivorousmammalsminimummaximumandrange AT traceylrogers examiningthepreymassofterrestrialandaquaticcarnivorousmammalsminimummaximumandrange
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Examining the prey mass of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous mammals: minimum, maximum and range.

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