RT Journal Article
T1 Geographic distribution of mammal diets
A1 Losada, María
A1 Suárez Couselo, Miguel
A1 Sobral Bernal, Mª Mar
AB The study of trophic interactions might be key to understanding the distribution of species on Earth. Particularly, the biogeography of heterotrophic species – such as mammals – could be strongly driven by trophic interactions (diet). Here, we map and discuss the division of dietary strategies (herbivory, frugivory, carnivory, etc.) of terrestrial mammals on a global scale. We analyzed the diet of 4854 extant terrestrial mammal species (with known range and diet data, representing 86.67 % of extant mammal species). We compiled species diets (EltonTraits database), species ranges (International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, database) and climate data (WorldClim database) to illustrate how mammal dietary strategies are distributed across the globe. First, we performed a principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) with diet data. Second, we mapped the distribution of the main dietary strategies (PCoA axes) of terrestrial mammals globally. Third, we analyzed how climate relates to dietary strategies. We found that herbivory in mammals is more common in northern and desert areas, which corresponds to areas with lower minimum temperatures and lower precipitation. Mammals feeding on fruits and invertebrates (frugivory and invertivory) are more common in the tropics, which corresponds to areas with higher precipitation and higher minimum temperatures. Mammals feeding on seeds (granivory) are predominant in North America, Europe, Central Asia and Oceania, corresponding to areas with temperate environments. Carnivorous mammals are more common in the Northern Hemisphere and towards the poles, which corresponds to areas with lower minimum temperatures and less extreme dry periods. Terrestrial mammal diets show clear geographical patterns that can be partially explained by climate across the globe.
PB Copernicus Publications
SN 2193-3081
YR 2024
FD 2024-08-15
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/45795
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/45795
LA eng
NO Losada, M., Suárez-Couselo, M., and Sobral, M. (2024): Geographic distribution of mammal diets, Web Ecol., 24, 71–79, https://doi.org/10.5194/we-24-71-2024
NO This research has been supported by the Con- sellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria, Xunta de Galicia (grant no. ED481D 2019/024) and the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Ciencias, Innovación y Universidades, Gobierno de España, under the NextGenerationEU program (grant no. CNS2022-135917).
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026