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Potential Foraging Decisions by a Desert Ungulate to Balance Water and Nutrient Intake in a Water-Stressed Environment

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, February 2016
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (83rd percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (79th percentile)

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1 news outlet
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2 X users

Citations

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20 Dimensions

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56 Mendeley
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Title
Potential Foraging Decisions by a Desert Ungulate to Balance Water and Nutrient Intake in a Water-Stressed Environment
Published in
PLOS ONE, February 2016
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0148795
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jay V. Gedir, James W. Cain, Paul R. Krausman, Jamison D. Allen, Glenn C. Duff, John R. Morgart

Abstract

Arid climates have unpredictable precipitation patterns, and wildlife managers often provide supplemental water to help desert ungulates endure the hottest, driest periods. When surface water is unavailable, the only source of water for ungulates comes from the forage they consume, and they must make resourceful foraging decisions to meet their requirements. We compared two desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) populations in Arizona, USA: a treatment population with supplemental water removed during treatment, and a control population. We examined whether sheep altered their seasonal diets without supplemental water. We calculated water and nutrient intake and metabolic water production from dry matter intake and forage moisture and nitrogen content, to determine whether sheep could meet their seasonal daily water and nutrient requirements solely from forage. Diets of sheep were higher in protein (all seasons) and moisture (autumn and winter) during treatment compared to pretreatment. During treatment, sheep diet composition was similar between the treatment and control populations, which suggests, under the climatic conditions of this study, water removal did not influence sheep diets. We estimated that under drought conditions, without any surface water available (although small ephemeral potholes would contain water after rains), female and male sheep would be unable to meet their daily water requirements in all seasons, except winter, when reproductive females had a nitrogen deficit. We determined that sheep could achieve water and nutrient balances in all seasons by shifting their total diet proportions by 8-55% from lower to higher moisture and nitrogen forage species. We elucidate how seasonal forage quality and foraging decisions by desert ungulates allow them to cope with their xeric and uncertain environment, and suggest that, with the forage conditions observed in our study area during this study period, providing supplemental water during water-stressed periods may not be necessary for desert bighorn sheep.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 56 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 56 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 17 30%
Student > Bachelor 10 18%
Researcher 6 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 4 7%
Student > Postgraduate 2 4%
Other 2 4%
Unknown 15 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 23 41%
Environmental Science 10 18%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 1 2%
Business, Management and Accounting 1 2%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 1 2%
Other 3 5%
Unknown 17 30%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 May 2016.
All research outputs
#2,947,008
of 22,851,489 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#39,200
of 194,932 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#48,541
of 297,903 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#1,064
of 5,393 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,851,489 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 86th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 194,932 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 79% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 297,903 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 5,393 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 79% of its contemporaries.