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There is growing recognition among ecologists that ecosystem engineers play important roles in creating habitat for other species, but the comparative and combined effects of co-existing engineers are not well known. Here, we evaluated the separate and interactive effects of two burrowing rodents, Gunnison's prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis), on lizards in the Chihuahuan Desert grassland (USA). We found that the mounds and burrow systems of both rodent species provided important habitat for lizards, with lizard abundance being 2 to 4-fold higher on mounds than in adjacent areas without mounds. Kangaroo rat mounds supported greater numbers of lizards than prairie...
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Conservation prioritization usually focuses on conservation of rare species or biodiversity, rather than ecological processes. This is partially due to a lack of informative indicators of ecosystem function. Biological soil crusts (BSCs) trap and retain soil and water resources in arid ecosystems and function as major carbon and nitrogen fixers; thus, they may be informative indicators of ecosystem function. We created spatial models of multiple indicators of the diversity and function of BSCs (species richness, evenness, functional diversity, functional redundancy, number of rare species, number of habitat specialists, nitrogen and carbon fixation indices, soil stabilization, and surface roughening) for the 800,000-ha...
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Animals that modify their environment through engineering and herbivory have important impacts on ecosystems, yet the interactive roles of such species have rarely been studied. We studied the comparative and interactive effects of two burrowing herbivorous rodents, Gunnison's prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis), on vegetation where they co-occurred in a Chihuahuan Desert grassland. We found that their effects remained distinct and, thus, non-substitutable, where they co-occurred. The rodents differentially altered plant community structure relative to their different mound types, herbivory, and spatial scales of disturbance. Vegetation structure and plant species...
    map background search result map search result map Engineering rodents create key habitat for lizards Prioritizing Conservation Effort through the Use of Biological Soil Crusts as Ecosystem Function Indicators in an Arid Region Burrowing rodents increase landscape heterogeneity in a desert grassland Engineering rodents create key habitat for lizards Burrowing rodents increase landscape heterogeneity in a desert grassland Prioritizing Conservation Effort through the Use of Biological Soil Crusts as Ecosystem Function Indicators in an Arid Region