Digging and soil turnover by a mycophagous marsupial
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Garkaklis, M.J., Bradley, J.S. and Wooller, R.D. (2004) Digging and soil turnover by a mycophagous marsupial. Journal of Arid Environments, 56 (3). pp. 569-578.
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Abstract
The woylie Bettongia penicillata is a small (1 kg) kangaroo-like marsupial that digs to obtain the fruiting bodies of fungi. The number of woylies in a 60 ha area of sclerophyll woodland in south-western Australia was estimated using mark-recapture at 3 month intervals over 3 successive years. The number of new diggings by woylies, determined at the same intervals, allowed an assessment of the rate of digging per individual. This varied three-fold from 38 to 114 diggings per individual per night, with no consistent seasonality. On average, each woylie displaced 4.8 tonnes of soil annually.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
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| Murdoch Affiliation: | School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology |
| Publisher: | Academic Press |
| Copyright: | © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. |
| URI: | http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/16599 |
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