Niche overlap between two large herbivores across landscape variability using dietary eDNA metabarcoding: Raw sequences of European bison and red deer – Bialowieza

Understanding the trophic ecology of herbivore species is key to assess their environmental requirements and to improve management policies, but measuring their trophic interactions remains challenging. Among the methods available, quantifying the plant composition of a species' diet provides a detailed picture of how species exploit the resources in their environment and their associated niche overlap. Yet, most studies focusing on herbivore trophic ecology ignore the influence that landscape variability may have. Here, we studied how landscape variability influences trophic interactions through niche partitioning. We used eDNA metabarcoding to quantify the diet composition of two large herbivores of the Bialowieza Forest, red deer (Cervus elaphus) and European bison (Bison bonasus, hereafter referred to as bison) to investigate how increasing habitat quality and predation risk in their environment influence their diet composition and niche partitioning. We found red deer to have an ov...