The project
TROPHYSPEC investigates how individuals belonging to the same population may use different food resources and how this specialisation contributes to the structure of the population’s overall trophic niche.
Research by the Roma Tre group has addressed these questions across different ectothermic vertebrates. In urodeles, studies examined resource partitioning among coexisting species and morphs; in lizards, research assessed how conventional and organic farming practices can alter prey availability, diet, individual specialisation and health.
Aims
- describe diet at both population and individual levels;
- quantify niche width and the degree of individual specialisation;
- assess the effects of habitat, seasonality and agricultural management on feeding strategies;
- understand the role of individual variation in species coexistence and conservation.
Learn more
- Linking agricultural practices to lizard trophic behaviour
- Trophic niche of cave populations of Speleomantes italicus
- Seasonal variation in the trophic niche of an Alpine newt population
Publications
- Simbula G., Bissattini A.M. & Vignoli L. (2022). Linking agricultural practices to lizard trophic behaviour: An ecological approach. Science of the Total Environment.
- Vignoli L., Caldera F. & Bologna M.A. (2006). Trophic niche of cave populations of Speleomantes italicus. Journal of Natural History.
- Vignoli L. & Luiselli L. (2011). Dietary relationships among coexisting anuran amphibians: a worldwide quantitative review. Oecologia.
- Vignoli L., Bissattini A.M. & Luiselli L. (2016). Food partitioning and the evolution of non-randomly structured communities in tailed amphibians: a worldwide systematic review. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
- Bissattini A.M., Buono V. & Vignoli L. (2019). Disentangling the trophic interactions between American bullfrogs and native anurans. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.
Gallery
Images from the project
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