Dietary overlap and potential competition in a dynamic ungulate community in Northwestern Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
ABSTRACT The potential for interspecific competition for food resources is a key consideration when newly introduced ungulates occupy a shared range with resident native species. Management plans in Yukon, Canada, for reintroduced bison (Bison bison) and introduced elk (Cervus canadensis) called for an assessment of competition for food resources between these species and resident populations of caribou (Rangifer tarandus), thinhorn sheep (Ovis dalli), and moose (Alces americanus). To assess potential competition among ungulates, we examined dietary overlap of 7 ungulate species in southwestern Yukon, Canada. We compared diet composition at the forage class level and composite diet indices (diversity, evenness, and niche breadth) among species found at 2 elevation classes (high [≥1,200 m ASL] and low [<1,200 m ASL]) during summer and winter, using data derived from microhistological analyses of feces. Composite indices and percent of key forage classes in diets differed among ungulates during summer and winter and at both high and low elevations. Potential dietary overlap for most species pairs was low to moderate (0.07–0.60). However, for bison and thinhorn sheep at high elevations, and bison and semi‐feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) at low elevations, it was high (0.82–0.97) during both summer and winter, indicating potential for food competition. Dietary overlap between species appeared to be based primarily on morphophysiological classification (i.e., browser‐intermediate‐grazer), rather than body size. Bison, horses, and sheep were all grazers. Intermediate species, such as introduced elk, had only moderate dietary overlap with several species. We concluded that the potential for competition for food resources based on dietary overlap between bison and sheep and bison and horses may be high in our study area, depending on forage availability, but for all other species pairs in our study area the potential for forage competition is low to moderate. © 2015 The Wildlife Society.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".