Farmland abandonment and season drive scavenging dynamics in livestock-rewilded landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Farmland abandonment occurs commonly across European mountain regions, which causes triggering of habitat encroachment through shrub regeneration and natural afforestation. However, its impact on vertebrate scavenger communities and ecological processes, such as the removal of small carcasses remains poorly understood. Through an experimental paired-plot design (grazed vs. abandoned-rewilded habitats), we monitored 99 small carcasses over two seasons (summer and winter) in traditional livestock grazing systems in the Guadarrama Mountains (central Spain) exposed to farmland abandonment. We evaluated how the composition and structure of the scavenger community as well as scavenging dynamics of small carcasses responded to habitat encroachment and seasonal changes. Our findings indicate that

SUBMITTER: Daza RR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12683695 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature