Metabarcoding insights into the diet and trophic diversity of six declining farmland birds.

ABSTRACT: Knowledge of feeding ecology of declining species, such as farmland birds, is essential to address their conservation requirements, especially when their habitats are suffering important reductions of trophic resources. In this study, we apply a metabarcoding approach to describe the diet composition of six of the most significant farmland birds inhabiting European cereal pseudo-steppes: little bustard, great bustard, pin-tailed sandgrouse, black-bellied sandgrouse, red-legged partridge, and common quail. We further studied seasonal diet variations (autumn to spring) in all species but the common quail, whose diet was studied during spring and summer. We show that study species´ diets mostly consisted of plants, although in the case of little bustard and great bustard arthropods are also h

SUBMITTER: Cabodevilla X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8548310 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature