Meta-barcoding insights into the spatial and temporal dietary patterns of the threatened Asian Great Bustard (Otis tarda dybowskii) with potential implications for diverging migratory strategies.

ABSTRACT: Food resources are often not sufficient to satisfy the nutritional and energetic requirements during winter conditions at high latitudes. Dietary analysis is a prerequisite to fully understanding the feeding ecology of a species and the nature of trophic interactions. Previous dietary studies of Asian Great Bustard (Otis tarda dybowskii) relied on behavioral observations, resulting in categorization of diet limited to broad taxonomic groupings. Here, we applied a high-throughput sequencing meta-barcoding approach to quantify the diet of resident and migratory Asian Great Bustard in three wintering sites during early winter and late winter. We detected 57 unique plant taxa in the bustard diet, among which 15 species were confirmed by a local plant database we generated. Both agricult

SUBMITTER: Liu G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5792609 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature