Hippopotamus are distinct from domestic livestock in their resource subsidies to and effects on aquatic ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: In many regions of the world, populations of large wildlife have been displaced by livestock, and this may change the functioning of aquatic ecosystems owing to significant differences in the quantity and quality of their dung. We developed a model for estimating loading rates of organic matter (dung) by cattle for comparison with estimated rates for hippopotamus in the Mara River, Kenya. We then conducted a replicated mesocosm experiment to measure ecosystem effects of nutrient and carbon inputs associated with dung from livestock (cattle) versus large wildlife (hippopotamus). Our loading model shows that per capita dung input by cattle is lower than for hippos, but total dung inputs by cattle constitute a significant portion of loading from large herbivores owing to the large numbers of

SUBMITTER: Masese FO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7282896 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature