Indirect estimation of landscape uses by Lama guanicoe and domestic herbivorous through the study of diet composition in South Patagonia

MARTÍNEZ PASTUR, G; SOLER ESTEBAN, R; LENCINAS, MV; BORRELLI, L

Forest landscapes and global change: New frontiers in management, conservation and restoration

Instituto Politécnico de Bragança

Año: 2010; p. 153 - 158

Herbivory is central in ecosystem function studies, and herbivores influence over regeneration and vegetation composition through browsing. Understanding diet selection behavior along the year is important to predict herbivore impacts on regeneration and vegetation dynamics under different scenarios of forest and grazing management. The objective was to evaluate diet composition of herbivorous, and correlates it to the use of different vegetation types along the year. Study was conducted in 100 km² of Tierra del Fuego Island (Argentina) where 205 floristic surveys were obtained. Feces of native (Lama guanicoe) and domestic (Bos taurus and Ovis aries) herbivorous were collected. Four laboratory samples per species and season were analyzed, each one composed by five fecal collection. Samples were mixed, dried and ground in a mill (1 mm) for micro-histological analysis. Browsing occurred all around year, where native and domestic herbivorous alternate the uses of different environments. Native species preferred Nothofagus pumilio forests, except in winter, where domestic species had major predominance. Beside this, all herbivorous species included grasses in their diet, which were found in open environments (grasslands and peatlands). The knowledge of diet and plant distribution at landscape level allows us to propose management strategies for native and domestic herbivorous.