Abstract
Wildlife species are threatened by massive habitat destruction worldwide. Habitat fragmentation and isolation spatially constrain animals and in turn cause non-sustainable rates of animal foraging on plant populations. However, little empirical research has been done in large controlled settings to investigate foraging impacts. We conducted an experiment to characterize the impact of panda foraging on the sustainability of its food resource, bamboo, in an enclosed area of natural habitat (approximately 19 ha). We monitored bamboo density, age, and percent cover throughout the enclosure across a 3-year period. We documented marked declines in bamboo density and percent cover as a result of panda foraging, particularly in younger bamboo age classes. We constructed simultaneous autoregressive models to explain bamboo loss to panda foraging and subsequent bamboo recovery as a function of habitat conditions. Areas with high initial bamboo cover not only were prone to high rates of bamboo percent cover loss but also experienced high rates of subsequent bamboo recovery, as bamboo cover loss opened up the understory for new growth. Variograms of ordinary least squares model residuals revealed that the range of spatial autocorrelation in bamboo loss increased over time as available bamboo forage declined. The results have implications for understanding the impact of animal foraging on vegetation and also highlight the importance of preventing further habitat fragmentation and isolation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrahams MV (1986) Patch choice under perceptual constraints: a cause for departure from an ideal free distribution. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 19:409–415
Ammer C (1996) Impact of ungulates on structure and dynamics of natural regeneration of mixed mountain forests in the Bavarian Alps. For Ecol Manag 88:43–53
Augustine DJ, McNaughton SJ (1998) Ungulate effects on the functional species composition of plant communities: herbivore selectivity and plant tolerance. J Wildl Manag 62:1165–1183
Bailey TC, Gatrell AC (1995) Interactive spatial data analysis. Prentice-Hall, Harlow
Bullock JM, Hill BC, Silvertown J (1994) Tiller dynamics of two grasses—responses to grazing, density and weather. J Ecol 82:331–340
Côté SD, Rooney TP, Tremblay J-P, Dussault C, Waller DM (2004) Ecological impacts of deer overabundance. Ann Rev Ecol Evol Syst 35:113–147
Cressie N, Hawkins DM (1980) Robust estimation of the variogram. I. Math Geol 12:115–125
Dyer MI, Turner CL, Seastedt TR (1991) Mowing and fertilization effect on productivity and spectral reflectance in Bromus Inermis plots. Ecol Appl 1:443–452
Environmental Systems Research Institute (2001) Getting to know ArcGIS desktop: basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo. ESRI, Redlands, CA
Fu B, Wang K, Lu Y, Liu S, Ma K, Chen L, Liu G (2004) Entangling the complexity of protected area management: the case of Wolong Biosphere Reserve, southwestern China. Environ Manag 33:788–798
Hu J, Wei F (2004) Comparative ecology of giant pandas in the five mountain ranges of their distribution in China. In: Lindburg D, Baragona K (eds) Giant pandas: biology and conservation. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, pp 137–148
Jenness J (2004) Nearest features (nearfeat.avx) extension for ArcView 3.x, v. 3.8a. Jenness Enterprises. http://www.jennessent.com/arcview/nearest_features.htm. Accessed 10 Jan 2005
Legendre P, Dale MRT, Fortin M-J, Gurevitch J, Hohn M, Myers D (2002) The consequences of spatial structure for the design and analysis of ecological field surveys. Ecography 25:601–615
Lichstein JW, Simons TR, Shriner SA, Franzreb KE (2002) Spatial autocorrelation and autoregressive models in ecology. Ecol Monogr 72:445–463
Liu JG, Ouyang Z, Taylor WW, Groop R, Tan KC, Zhang HM (1999) A framework for evaluating the effects of human factors on wildlife habitat: the case of giant pandas. Conserv Biol 13:1360–1370
Liu J, Linderman M, Ouyang Z, An L, Yang J, Zhang H (2001) Ecological degradation in protected areas: the case of Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas. Science 292:98–101
Liu J, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR, Luck GW (2003a) Effects of household dynamics on resource consumption and biodiversity. Nature 421:530–533
Liu J, Ouyang Z, Pimm S, Raven P, Wang X, Miao H, Han N (2003b) Protecting China’s biodiversity. Science 300:1240–1241
Liu X, Toxopeus AG, Skidmore AK, Shao X (2005) Giant panda habitat selection in Foping Nature Reserve, China. J Wildl Manag 69:1623–1632
Loucks CJ, Lü Z, Dinerstein E, Wang D, Olson DM, Zhu C, Wang D (2001) Giant pandas in a changing landscape. Science 294:1465
Martin J-L, Stockton S, Allombert S, Gaston A (2010) Top-down and bottom-up consequences of unchecked ungulate browsing on plant and animal diversity in temperate forests: lessons from a deer introduction. Biol Invasions 12:353–371
Meisel J, Turner MG (1998) Scale detection in real and artificial landscapes using semivariance analysis. Landsc Ecol 13:347–362
Morrison ML, Marcot BG, Mannan RW (2006) Wildlife–habitat relationships: concepts and applications. Island Press, Washington, DC
Paige KN, Whitham TG (1987) Overcompensation in response to mammalian herbivory: the advantage of being eaten. Am Nat 129:407
Pimm SL, Russell GJ, Gittleman JL, Brooks TM (1995) The future of biodiversity. Science 269:347–350
R Development Core Team (2005) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna
Reid DG, Hu J (1991) Giant panda selection between Bashania fangiana bamboo habitats in Wolong Reserve, Sichuan, China. J Appl Ecol 28:228–243
Rooney TP (1997) Escaping herbivory: refuge effects on the morphology and shoot demography of the clonal forest herb Maianthemum canadense. J Torrey Bot Soc 124:280–285
Rooney TP, Waller DM (2003) Direct and indirect effects of white-tailed deer in forest ecosystems. For Ecol Manag 181:165–176
Schaller GB, Hu J, Pan W, Zhu J (1985) The giant pandas of Wolong. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL
Stamps JA (1998) Conspecific attraction and aggregation in territorial species. Am Nat 131:329–347
State Forestry Administration (2006) The 3rd national survey report on giant panda in China. Science Publisher, Beijing
Tao J, Song L, Wang Y, Zhang W (2008) Response of clonal plasticity of Fargesia nitida to different canopy conditions of subalpine coniferous forest. Front Biol China 3:463–469
Taylor AH, Qin Z (1987) Culm dynamics and dry matter production of bamboos in the Wolong and Tangjiahe giant panda reserves, Sichuan, China. J Appl Ecol 24:419–433
Taylor AH, Qin ZS (1993a) Aging bamboo culms to assess bamboo population-dynamics in panda habitat. Environ Conserv 20:76–79
Taylor AH, Qin ZS (1993b) Structure and dynamics of bamboos in the Wolong Natural Reserve, China. Am J Bot 80:375–384
Taylor AH, Qin Z (1997) The dynamics of temperate bamboo forests and panda conservation in China. In: Chapman GP (ed) The bamboos. The Linnean Society of London, London, pp 189–203
Taylor AH, Huang J, Zhou S (2004) Canopy tree development and undergrowth bamboo dynamics in old-growth Abies-Betula forests in southwestern China: a 12-year study. For Ecol Manag 200:347–360
Tripathi S, Singh K (1996) Culm recruitment, dry matter dynamics and carbon flux in recently harvested and mature bamboo savannas in the Indian dry tropics. Ecol Res 11:149–164
Valcu M, Kempenaers B (2010) Is spatial autocorrelation an intrinsic property of territory size? Oecologia 162:609–615
Wang W, Franklin SB, Ren Y, Ouellette JR (2006) Growth of bamboo Fargesia qinlingensis and regeneration of trees in a mixed hardwood-conifer forest in the Qinling Mountains, China. For Ecol Manag 234:107–115
Wang W, Franklin SB, Ouellette JR (2007) Clonal regeneration of an arrow bamboo, Fargesia qinlingensis, following giant panda herbivory. Plant Ecol 192:97–106
Yu G, Jiang Z, Zhao Z, Wang B, Wang Y (2003) Feeding habitat of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca): why do they prefer bamboo patch edges? J Zool 261:307–312
Zhang Z, Wei F, Li M, Hu J (2006) Winter microhabitat separation between giant and red pandas in Bashania faberi bamboo forest in Fengtongzhai Nature Reserve. J Wildl Manag 70:231–235
Zhou S, Huang J, Wang P, Zhang H (2004) A study on the feature of bamboo growth and biomass structure in giant panda’s field training area. J Bamboo Res 23:21–25
Acknowledgments
We thank the administration at Wolong Nature Reserve, China for their support. We are indebted to our field workers, including L. Cheng, S. Fan, M. Li, W. Liu, O. Moy, S. Song, Y. Tan, W. Yang, and Y. Zhang. We thank the National Science Foundation, the Natural Science Foundation of China, Michigan State University’s University Distinguished Fellowship Program, the Taylor International Engagement Fellowship Program, and the Rocky Mountain Goat Foundation for providing funding for this project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hull, V., Shortridge, A., Liu, B. et al. The impact of giant panda foraging on bamboo dynamics in an isolated environment. Plant Ecol 212, 43–54 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9800-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9800-3