ReviewOecologia2013
The role of carrion in maintaining biodiversity and ecological processes in terrestrial ecosystems.
Review in Oecologia, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
86 citing papers in PubMed, 363 citations in OpenAlex.
- Contrasting properties of predation and scavenging networks governed by megaherbivores in an African savannah.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Tiny but mighty: Insects can drive carrion decomposition in the absence of facultative vertebrate scavengers.Ecology · 2026Article
- Phylogeny Drives Carrion Consumption by Vertebrate Scavengers Towards Distantly Related Species.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Regional and Temporal Differences in the Functionality of Facultative Vertebrate Scavenger Communities.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Camera Trap Design Determines Taxa Detected at Carrion Sites.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Size-based niche partitioning permits coexistence in natural populations of Nicrophorus spp.Environmental entomology · 2025Article
- Farmland abandonment and season drive scavenging dynamics in livestock-rewilded landscapes.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Lasting Effects of Different Scaled Mass Mortality Events on Soil Microbial Communities.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
- Carrion Increases Landscape-Scale Scavenger Activity and Interactions.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- On the underappreciated role of scavengers in freshwater ecosystems.Bioscience · 2025Review
- Vulture Exclusion Halves Large Carcass Decomposition Rates and Doubles Fly Abundance.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Carcass use by mesoscavengers varied across modified landscapes in the absence of top carnivores.Oecologia · 2025Article
- The Functional and Structural Succession of Mesic-Grassland Soil Microbiomes Beneath Decomposing Large Herbivore Carcasses.Environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Population and sexual fluctuation of Calliphoridae and Mesembrinellidae (Diptera: Oestroidea) in the Atlantic forest of Rio de Janeiro.PloS one · 2025Article
- Organic Matter Composition as a Driver of Soil Bacterial Responses to Pig Carcass Decomposition in a Canadian Continental Climate.Journal of geophysical research. Biogeosciences · 2024Article
- Influence of Human Hunting Strategies and Large Carnivore Presence on Population Dynamics of European Facultative Scavengers.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Carcass size, not source or taxon, dictates breeding performance and carcass use in a burying beetle.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Article
- Mechanisms determining the multi-diversity of carrion visiting species along a gradient of carrion body mass.Oecologia · 2024Article
- Ecological drivers of carrion beetle (Staphylinidae: Silphinae) diversity on small to large mammals.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Carrion provides a resource for a subset of animal species that deliver a critical ecosystem service by consuming dead animal matter and recycling its nutrients. A growing number of studies have also shown various effects of carrion on different plant and microbial communities. However, there has been no review of these studies to bring this information together and identify priority areas for future research. We review carrion ecology studies from the last two decades and summarise the range of spatial and temporal effects of carrion on soil nutrients, microbes, plants, arthropods, and vertebrates. We identify key knowledge gaps in carrion ecology, and discuss how closing these gaps can be achieved by focusing future research on the (1) different kinds of carrion resources, (2) interactions between different components of the carrion community, (3) the ways that ecosystem context can moderate carrion effects, and (4) considerations for carrion management. To guide this research, we outline a framework that builds on the 'ephemeral resource patch' concept, and helps to structure research questions that link localised effects of carrion with their consequences at landscape scales. This will enable improved characterisation of carrion as a unique resource pool, provide answers for land managers in a position to influence carrion availability, and establish the ways that carrion affects the dynamics of species diversity and ecological processes within landscapes.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.