Effects of vegetation type differences induced by human disturbance on the nutrition strategy and gut microbiota of Siberian roe deer.

The Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) is a widely distributed ungulate in northeast China. Due to a series of human disturbance activities such as large-scale forest cutting, deforestation and reclamation, road construction in the past, the appearance and internal structure of forest vegetation in the habitat of Siberian roe have changed significantly. At the same time, Siberian roe population had a series of ecological adaptation responses in the face of such habitat changes. Therefore, two typical vegetation types with differences were selected in the Muling Forest, China. We used nutritional ecology and microbial metagenomic analysis techniques to compare the nutritional selection strategy and the structure and functional characteristics of faecal microbiota of Siberian roe groups in two vegetation types. The results showed that the α diversity of dietary and gut microbes of deer in Natural Forest was higher than that in Plantation Forest. However, the gut microbes of the Plantation Forest group contained more unique enzymes in the functional pathways of carbon metabolism and biosynthesis of amino acids. This study suggests that habitat type is associated with plant community composition, and contributes to changes in the intake proportions of major macronutrients by altering the availability, quality, and composition of certain edible plants. Feeding behaviour may be an important regulatory factor of gut microbiota structure and function of deer. The metabolic function of gut microbiota to different nutrients may affect the microbial community structure. Therefore, our results suggest that the gut microbes of Siberian roe may have coevolved with their diets, and reflect the adaptability of deer populations to environmental changes (e.g., vegetation type). Our study provides new insights into how spatial heterogeneity affects nutrition and microecosystems by describing the interactions among the environment, diet, and symbiotic gut microbes in wild ungulates.

Can artificial ecological islands alter the biodiversity of macroinvertebrate? A case study in Fujin National Wetland Park, the Sanjiang Plain, China.

Many policies and studies globally have highlighted the pivotal role of wetland ecosystems regarding wetland biota and their ecological status. With the strengthening of wetland ecosystem management legislation and policy, wetland restoration should also consider increasing habitat diversity to improve biota. We explore whether the construction of artificial ecological islands can increase the diversity of and macroinvertebrates before assessing the effects of actively constructing islands via human intervention on wetland protection.We discuss changes in macroinvertebrate diversity (i) with and without islands, (ii) at different water-level gradients surrounding the islands, (ⅲ) on different island substrates, and (ⅳ) at different time scales. We used ANOVA, ANOSIM, and cluster analysis to test the differences.The macroinvertebrate communities had spatially heterogeneous distributions which changes over time due to both natural and anthropogenic stresses. The establishment of islands significantly increased the community composition and biodiversity of the macroinvertebrate. Water depth and substrate affect community composition of macrozoobenthos. The abundance and diversity of macroinvertebrates can influence the biodiversity of their predators (fish and waterbirds). Potentially, the construction of islands could provide some cobenefits for the conservation of wetland fauna. Synthesis and applications. Establishing artificial ecological islands in broad open-water areas and increasing water-level gradient and substrate diversity can increase microhabitat availability and habitat heterogeneity. These changes can adapt to different ecological niches of aquatic organisms, increase biodiversity, and have a positive effect on the ecological restoration of inland freshwater marshes and wetlands.