Bangalore: A 15 -year study in the Indian Spiti Valley has revealed that replacing wild herbivores such as Yak and Ibex with cattle such as cattle and sheep drastically affect arthropods that live on the ground like spiders, as well as that of ticks and mites that can extend Vector transmitted diseases.
The study found that the areas passed by the cattle had greatly reduced spiders and a greater number of skip and carriers of diseases such as ticks and mites, Iisc said.
“Spiders are predators; Its ecological roles are similar to wolves, lions and tigers. A low abundance of spiders can release jets from the control of predators and lead to many subsequent changes in an ecosystem. Together, these effects alter the flow of material and energy, “says Sumanta Bagchi, associated professor at the Center for Ecological Sciences (CES) of the IISC, and the corresponding author of the study published in ecological applications.
By stating that wild herbivores were once ubiquitous on Earth, Bagchi said they are now restricted to some parks and reserves.
“Everywhere, domesticated animals are now dominant,” Bagchi, who along with his team tracked traced the presence of more than 25,000 arthropods that cover 88 different taxa, including spiders, ticks, mites, bees, wasps and grasshopper, in diagrams fenced that separate separately separately separately. By domestic and wild herbivores, he said.
The team also analyzed the biomass of vegetation and soil conditions such as humidity and pH. “The biotic and abiotic variables of the soil are intertwined in complex ways that we are still falling apart. Arthropods depend largely on them for food and home, an association developed for centuries with native passengers in the ecosystem, ”says Shamik Roy, former doctoral student in CES and co-first author.
Replacing native passengers with cattle can alter this association. The team discovered that some arthropod numbers, specifically that of spiders, ticks and mites, were strongly linked to those that the animal grazed on earth. While spider numbers fell under cattle grazing, tick and mites populations increased drastically.
Although what is causing the number of spiders to fall is not completely clear, researchers suggest that it could be due to reduced food sources for spiders and changes in plants in the area.
“One of the most surprising observations was the massive difference in the abundance of ticks and mites between native passengers and cattle,” says Pronoy Baidya, former doctoral student in CES and co-director author.
According to researchers, it is estimated that more than 80% of cattle worldwide house ticks that represent a threat to animal and human health. “This is a great concern about zoonotic diseases and health,” Baidya adds.
To counteract the consequences of these changes in the number of arthropods, the researchers suggest steps towards the native herbivores of “rewind” and improve the surveillance of the disease risks transmitted by vectors in areas where animals and humans coexist. The findings also underline the need for effective conservation policies in areas where large -scale grazing is carried out by cattle.
Currently, Baidya said, most common goods are quite poorly administered, allowing people of villages to use these common goods unsustaining for their livelihoods, and in the process denies local herbivores their grazing areas .
“We hope that our study is an example that can push governments to take serious measures to first free the commons and then begin the adequate ecological restoration of these lands,” Baidya added.
