Using the metagenome and metabolome to explain links between human disturbances and demographics of pronghorn

Plants and the animals that eat them are in a constant battle for survival. Plants continue to produce new toxic chemicals while herbivores, and their associated microbial communities, battle back with genetic changes that provide tolerance to plant toxins. Low tolerance to toxins can alter habitat use by herbivores and result in loss of body mass, nutritional condition, and reproductive success. As such, the management of wild and domestic herbivores who compete for increasing limited plant resources across our changing landscapes could benefit from increased ability to manage toxin tolerance. This project seeks to use genetic and chemical biomarkers in the fecal material of pronghorn to understand demographic data. We will use genetics to identify diet composition and microbial communities in the gut and we will use metabolomics to assess the chemical profile of feces. Integrating the knowledge of diet composition, gut microbes, and the way in which herbivores absorb and metabolize nutrients and secondary metabolites from their plants will be modeled to predict survival of individuals.