Synergistic effect of land-use and vegetation greenness on vulture nestling body condition in arid ecosystems

Andrea Santangeli,Orr Spiegel,Peter Bridgeford,Marco Girardello

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-31344-2

Abstract

Climate-driven environmental change and land-use change often interact in their impact on biodiversity, but these interactions have received little scientific attention. Here we study the effects of climate-driven environmental variation (i.e. vegetation greenness) and land-use (protected versus unprotected areas) on body condition of vulture nestlings in savannah landscapes. We combine ringing data on nestling measurements of two vultures (lappet-faced and African white-backed vulture) with land-use and environmental variables. We show that body condition of white-backed vulture nestlings decreased through the study period and was lowest inside protected areas. For the lappet-faced vulture, nestling condition was improved during harsh years with lower than average vegetation greenness assumed to result in increased ungulate mortality, but only within protected areas. Such interaction was not tested for the white-backed vulture due to collinearity. The species-specific effects of land-use and vegetation greenness on nestling condition of the two sympatric vulture species likely stem from their different life-histories, diet preferences and foraging behaviour. While translation of current findings on nestling conditions to their possible influence on population demography and species persistence require further studies, our findings demonstrate how environmental change may trigger selective bottom-up ecosystem responses in arid environments under global change.

Highlights

Climate change and land-use change are among the major drivers of biodiversity loss[1,2]
Body condition of lappet-faced vulture nestlings was negatively related to NDVI (Table 1 and Fig. 2)
This implies that body condition of lappet-faced vulture nestlings was higher when environmental conditions prior to nestling measurement were drier

Summary

Introduction

Climate change and land-use change are among the major drivers of biodiversity loss[1,2]. Anthropogenic land conversion and climate change may often act in synergy, triggering a negative feedback whereby habitats may rapidly deteriorate, resulting in wildlife population declines and possible extinctions[4] Such synergistic impacts may be important in most regions of the world where large swaths of land are under some form of production regimes (such as farmland) and are at high vulnerability from climate change[3,5]. The arid savannahs of Africa support important taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity[7], provide key ecosystem services, such as food and fiber, and generate profit from ecotourism that contribute to improve local livelihoods[8] These areas, once largely natural, are being widely converted to farmland, either for livestock or for crop production[9]. Carrion availability will depend on the presence and abundance of mammalian competitors, as well as carcass visibility and accessibility[23,24]

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