Abstract
Geese often forage on mid-winter foods that fail to satisfy daily energy needs, but they may do so to acquire other nutrients, such as nitrogen. We tested this hypothesis by evaluating nitrogen budgets, namely the balance of nitrogen income against expenditure, of wintering Lesser White-fronted Geese Anser erythropus feeding at two sites within East Dongting Lake, China, where they could and could not balance daily energy budgets. Geese could balance nitrogen budgets in energy-rich habitats but were less able to do so in habitats where they failed to balance energy budgets. This study presents the first full nitrogen budget for a wintering goose species, and suggests that, rather than acting as a source of nitrogen, use of energy-poor but undisturbed habitats may represent a refuge from human disturbance at other habitats.
Zusammenfassung
Wechseln zu energiearmer Nahrung zugunsten der Stickstoffaufnahme? Bei überwinternden Zwerggänsen in China ist das nicht der Fall
Zur Mitte des Winters ernähren sich Gänse häufig von Futterpflanzen, mit denen sie zwar nicht ihren täglichen Energiebedarf decken können, die ihnen aber zur Versorgung mit anderen Nährstoffen wie zum Beispiel Stickstoff dienen. Wir überprüften diese Hypothese, indem wir die Stickstoffbilanz in Form des Verhältnisses zwischen Stickstoffaufnahme und Stickstoffverbrauch bei überwinternden Zwerggänsen Anser erythropus untersuchten, die auf zwei Flächen am östlichen Dongting-See in China Nahrung suchten, wobei sie auf einer von diesen ihre Energiebilanz ausgleichen konnten, auf der anderen dagegen nicht. Die Gänse konnten ihren Stickstoffhaushalt in energiereichen Habitaten ausgleichen; dies gelang ihnen aber weniger gut in Lebensräumen, in welchen sie keine ausgewogene Energiebilanz erreichten. Diese Studie stellt die erste vollständige Stickstoffbilanz für eine überwinternde Gänseart dar, und die Ergebnisse sprechen eher dafür, dass energiearme aber störungsfreie Habitate als Rückzugsgebiete von Störungen durch Menschen an anderen Orten genutzt werden, als dass sie eine Rolle als Stickstoffquelle spielen.
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Acknowledgments
We thank East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve for permission to work in the nature reserve and assistance with field work, and Liu Jing, Yang Xiuli, Yang Wei and Yu Xiaoxi for assistance. We are grateful to Eileen Rees and one anonymous referee for constructive and insightful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31071941).
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Wang, X., Fox, A.D., Zhuang, X. et al. Shifting to an energy-poor diet for nitrogen? Not the case for wintering herbivorous Lesser White-fronted Geese in China. J Ornithol 155, 707–712 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-014-1056-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-014-1056-6