Dracula's Menagerie Reloaded: Assessing the Relative Roles of Habitat and Interspecific Interactions in an Intact Mammalian Assemblage Using Structural Equation Modeling
ABSTRACT Interspecific interactions play a central role in structuring animal communities and food webs. In particular, carnivores are important topdown regulators in ecological communities and the loss of carnivore species can have devastating ecosystem effects. Similarly, carnivore reintroductions...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Evolution |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71381 |
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| author | Marissa A. Dyck Ruben Iosif Barbara Promberger–Fürpass Viorel D. Popescu |
| author_facet | Marissa A. Dyck Ruben Iosif Barbara Promberger–Fürpass Viorel D. Popescu |
| author_sort | Marissa A. Dyck |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Interspecific interactions play a central role in structuring animal communities and food webs. In particular, carnivores are important topdown regulators in ecological communities and the loss of carnivore species can have devastating ecosystem effects. Similarly, carnivore reintroductions are successful if the prey base is sufficient to support population growth, making the case for the importance of bottom‐up regulation processes. As such, rewilding efforts targeted at restoring food webs and natural community regulation processes (trophic rewilding) have become increasingly popular. However, investigations of regulation processes in terrestrial vertebrate communities often take place in heavily altered systems, potentially biasing inference on the presence or importance of top‐down versus bottom‐up regulation processes. Here, we use a stable mammalian assemblage in the Romanian Carpathians to evaluate the relative importance of top‐down and bottom‐up processes and provide a benchmark for understanding the effects and the success of rewilding initiatives. To do so, we used camera trap data from two consecutive years in the Southern Romanian Carpathians and developed hypothesisbased interaction pathways for top‐down and bottom‐up regulation in a piecewise structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Results from SEMs indicate that while both top‐down (wolf and Eurasian lynx‐driven) and bottom‐up processes (driven by roe deer, red deer, wild boar and hare abundance) play important roles in shaping community structure, landscape characteristics (i.e., terrain ruggedness, road density, elevation, and forest cover) have a greater effect on both predators and prey. The results of this research have implications for rewilding efforts in Europe and globally. This study highlights the importance of preserving natural habitats, underscoring that effective species conservation and coexistence must go hand in hand with conserving natural spaces. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-60f1c5f0397f417585ebbb99be831ed9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-7758 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj-art-60f1c5f0397f417585ebbb99be831ed92025-08-20T03:24:16ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582025-04-01154n/an/a10.1002/ece3.71381Dracula's Menagerie Reloaded: Assessing the Relative Roles of Habitat and Interspecific Interactions in an Intact Mammalian Assemblage Using Structural Equation ModelingMarissa A. Dyck0Ruben Iosif1Barbara Promberger–Fürpass2Viorel D. Popescu3School of Environmental Studies University of Victoria Victoria British Columbia CanadaFoundation Conservation Carpathia Brașov RomaniaFoundation Conservation Carpathia Brașov RomaniaCenter for Environmental Research University of Bucharest Bucharest RomaniaABSTRACT Interspecific interactions play a central role in structuring animal communities and food webs. In particular, carnivores are important topdown regulators in ecological communities and the loss of carnivore species can have devastating ecosystem effects. Similarly, carnivore reintroductions are successful if the prey base is sufficient to support population growth, making the case for the importance of bottom‐up regulation processes. As such, rewilding efforts targeted at restoring food webs and natural community regulation processes (trophic rewilding) have become increasingly popular. However, investigations of regulation processes in terrestrial vertebrate communities often take place in heavily altered systems, potentially biasing inference on the presence or importance of top‐down versus bottom‐up regulation processes. Here, we use a stable mammalian assemblage in the Romanian Carpathians to evaluate the relative importance of top‐down and bottom‐up processes and provide a benchmark for understanding the effects and the success of rewilding initiatives. To do so, we used camera trap data from two consecutive years in the Southern Romanian Carpathians and developed hypothesisbased interaction pathways for top‐down and bottom‐up regulation in a piecewise structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Results from SEMs indicate that while both top‐down (wolf and Eurasian lynx‐driven) and bottom‐up processes (driven by roe deer, red deer, wild boar and hare abundance) play important roles in shaping community structure, landscape characteristics (i.e., terrain ruggedness, road density, elevation, and forest cover) have a greater effect on both predators and prey. The results of this research have implications for rewilding efforts in Europe and globally. This study highlights the importance of preserving natural habitats, underscoring that effective species conservation and coexistence must go hand in hand with conserving natural spaces.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71381 |
| spellingShingle | Marissa A. Dyck Ruben Iosif Barbara Promberger–Fürpass Viorel D. Popescu Dracula's Menagerie Reloaded: Assessing the Relative Roles of Habitat and Interspecific Interactions in an Intact Mammalian Assemblage Using Structural Equation Modeling Ecology and Evolution |
| title | Dracula's Menagerie Reloaded: Assessing the Relative Roles of Habitat and Interspecific Interactions in an Intact Mammalian Assemblage Using Structural Equation Modeling |
| title_full | Dracula's Menagerie Reloaded: Assessing the Relative Roles of Habitat and Interspecific Interactions in an Intact Mammalian Assemblage Using Structural Equation Modeling |
| title_fullStr | Dracula's Menagerie Reloaded: Assessing the Relative Roles of Habitat and Interspecific Interactions in an Intact Mammalian Assemblage Using Structural Equation Modeling |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dracula's Menagerie Reloaded: Assessing the Relative Roles of Habitat and Interspecific Interactions in an Intact Mammalian Assemblage Using Structural Equation Modeling |
| title_short | Dracula's Menagerie Reloaded: Assessing the Relative Roles of Habitat and Interspecific Interactions in an Intact Mammalian Assemblage Using Structural Equation Modeling |
| title_sort | dracula s menagerie reloaded assessing the relative roles of habitat and interspecific interactions in an intact mammalian assemblage using structural equation modeling |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71381 |
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