Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Disease-mediated bottom-up regulation: An emergent virus affects a keystone prey, and alters the dynamics of trophic webs

2016; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/srep36072

2045-2322

Pedro Monterroso, Germán Garrote, Ana Serronha, Emídio Santos, Miguel Delibes‐Mateos, Joana Abrantes, Ramón Pérez de Ayala, Fernando Silvestre, João Carvalho, Inês Conde Vasco, Ana M. Lopes, Elisa Maio, Maria J. Magalhães, L. Scott Mills, Pedro J. Esteves, Miguel Ángel Simón, Paulo C. Alves,

Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Abstract Emergent diseases may alter the structure and functioning of ecosystems by creating new biotic interactions and modifying existing ones, producing cascading processes along trophic webs. Recently, a new variant of the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV2 or RHDVb) arguably caused widespread declines in a keystone prey in Mediterranean ecosystems - the European rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ). We quantitatively assess the impact of RHDV2 on natural rabbit populations and in two endangered apex predator populations: the Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus ) and the Spanish Imperial eagle ( Aquila adalberti ). We found 60–70% declines in rabbit populations, followed by decreases of 65.7% in Iberian lynx and 45.5% in Spanish Imperial eagle fecundities. A revision of the web of trophic interactions among rabbits and their dependent predators suggests that RHDV2 acts as a keystone species, and may steer Mediterranean ecosystems to management-dependent alternative states, dominated by simplified mesopredator communities. This model system stresses the importance of diseases as functional players in the dynamics of trophic webs.