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A simple, integrative assay to quantify nutritional quality of browses for herbivores

  • PLANT-ANIMAL INTERACTIONS - METHODS
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Abstract

Many regard the concentrations of nitrogen (N), tannins and plant cell wall constituents (fibre) as key indicators of food quality and habitat suitability for browsing herbivores; yet there is no method for measuring their combined effects. We have developed a simple in vitro assay for measuring the effects of tannins and fibre on N availability in browse. We determined the effects of tannins by measuring the polyethylene glycol (PEG)-binding capacity (PEG-BC) of Eucalyptus leaf samples, followed by a two-stage in vitro digestion with pepsin and cellulase to determine the digestibility of dry matter and N. There was a significant relationship between concentrations of digestible N and the PEG-BC of the leaves. Furthermore, adding PEG significantly improved the digestibility of N. Our results concur with in vivo observations from several mammalian species. This suggests that our method is effective for measuring the nutritional quality of browse and the benefits of adding PEG, providing some index of the detrimental effects of tannins. We further simplified the assay by removing the PEG step, allowing us to quickly analyse samples in bulk. Nevertheless, this simplified method is still not practical for analysing the many samples necessary to compare the nutritional values of different tracts of forest. We used near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy to produce calibration equations and predicted total and digestible N in 322 trees at eleven sites. Both within and between sites, we found a wide variation in concentrations of digestible N but a much lower variation in total N, with either no relationship or poor relationships between the two measures. This confirms the variability in the nutritional quality of eucalypt forests, which may explain the distribution and abundance of mammalian herbivores. Thus, our assay provides a useful tool for understanding how food resources influence herbivore populations at different scales.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Euan Ritchie and Lewis Anderson for help with collecting leaf samples and Frances Marsh and Elesha Curran for assistance in the laboratory. We thank Raymond Jones for valuable advice and discussions and Glenn Iason and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Ray and Betty Fryer, Brian Furber and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy kindly allowed us access to their land. Leaf samples were collected under Queensland EPA permit number—WISP03374205. Funding was provided by grants from the Australian Research Council to WJF and the Australia-Pacific Science Foundation to BDM. JLD was supported by an Australian National University Graduate School Scholarship and thanks Chris Johnson for advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Botany and Zoology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Jane L. DeGabriel, Ian R. Wallis & William J. Foley

  2. School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Jane L. DeGabriel & Ben D. Moore

  3. The Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, UK

    Ben D. Moore

  4. School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, UK

    Jane L. DeGabriel

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  1. Jane L. DeGabriel
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  2. Ian R. Wallis
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  4. William J. Foley
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Correspondence to Jane L. DeGabriel.

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Communicated by Jörg Ganzhorn.

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DeGabriel, J.L., Wallis, I.R., Moore, B.D. et al. A simple, integrative assay to quantify nutritional quality of browses for herbivores. Oecologia 156, 107–116 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-0960-y

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