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The Role of Individual Traits and Environmental Factors for Diet Composition of Sheep

Mysterud, Atle; Austrheim, Gunnar
Peer reviewed, Journal article
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2381719
Date
2016
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  • Institutt for naturhistorie [941]
  • Publikasjoner fra CRIStin - NTNU [20888]
Original version
PLoS ONE 2016, 11(1)   10.1371/journal.pone.0146217
Abstract
Large herbivore consumption of forage is known to affect vegetation composition and

thereby ecosystem functions. It is thus important to understand how diet composition arises

as a mixture of individual variation in preferences and environmental drivers of availability,

but few studies have quantified both. Based on 10 years of data on diet composition by aid

of microhistological analysis for sheep kept at high and low population density, we analysed

how both individual traits (sex, age, body mass, litter size) linked to preference and environmental variation (density, climate proxies) linked to forage availability affected proportional

intake of herbs (high quality/low availability) and Avenella flexuosa(lower quality/high availability). Environmental factors affecting current forage availability such as population density and seasonal and annual variation in diet had the most marked impact on diet

composition. Previous environment of sheep (switch between high and low population density) had no impact on diet, suggesting a comparably minor role of learning for density

dependent diet selection. For individual traits, only the difference between lambs and ewes

affected proportion ofA.flexuosa, while body mass better predicted proportion of herbs in

diet. Neither sex, body mass, litter size, ewe age nor mass of ewe affected diet composition

of lambs, and there was no effect of age, body mass or litter size on diet composition of

ewes. Our study highlights that diet composition arises from a combination of preferences

being predicted by lamb and ewes’ age and/or body mass differences, and the immediate

environment in terms of population density and proxies for vegetation development.
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Journal
PLoS ONE

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