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Functional redundancy, the potential for the functional role of one species to be fulfilled by another, is a key determinant of ecosystem viability. Scavenging transfers huge amount of energy through ecosystems and is, therefore, crucial for ecosystem viability and healthy ecosystem functioning. Despite this, relatively few studies have examined functional redundancy in scavenger communities. Moreover, the results of these studies are mixed and confined to a very limited range of habitat types and taxonomic groups.This study attempts to address this knowledge gap by conducting a field experiment in an undisturbed natural environment assessing functional roles and redundancy in vertebrate and invertebrate scavenging communities in a South African savanna.We used a large‐scale field experiment to suppress ants in four 1 ha plots in a South African savanna and paired each with a control plot. We distributed three types of small food bait: carbohydrate, protein and seed, across the plots and excluded vertebrates from half the baits using cages. Using this combination of ant suppression and vertebrate exclusion, allowed us explore the contribution of non‐ant invertebrates, ants and vertebrates in scavenging and also to determine whether either ants or vertebrates were able to compensate for the loss of one another.In this study, we found the invertebrate community carried out a larger proportion of overall scavenging services than vertebrates. Moreover, although scavenging was reduced when either invertebrates or vertebrates were absent, the presence of invertebrates better mitigated the functional loss of vertebrates than did the presence of vertebrates against the functional loss of invertebrates. There is a commonly held assumption that the functional role of vertebrate scavengers exceeds that of invertebrate scavengers; our results suggest that this is not true for small scavenging resources.Our study highlights the importance of invertebrates for securing healthy ecosystem functioning both now and into the future. We also build upon many previous studies which show that ants can have particularly large effects on ecosystem functioning. Importantly, our study suggests that scavenging in some ecosystems may be partly resilient to changes in the scavenging community, due to the potential for functional compensation by vertebrates and ants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Aim Location Time Period Major Taxa Studied Methods Results Main Conclusions Termites are a crucial group of macroinvertebrates regulating rates of deadwood decomposition across tropical and subtropical regions. When examining global patterns of deadwood decay, termites are treated as a homogenous group. There exist key biogeographical differences in termite distribution. One such clear distinction is the distribution of fungus‐growing termites (FGT, subfamily Macrotermitinae). Considering that climate will have shaped termite distribution and ecosystem processes, we evaluate the roles of termite distribution (presence of FGT) and climate (aridity) on global patterns in deadwood decay.Between 46° N‐43° S and 175° E‐85° W.Present (between 2016 and 2021).Termites (Blattodea: Termitoidae).We add salient data to an existing global dataset on deadwood decomposition, including new data from five existing sites and seven additional African sites. We analyse a dataset spanning six continents, 16 countries and 102 experimental sites. Firstly, we evaluate climatic differences (mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation and mean annual aridity) between sites with and without FGT. Secondly, using aridity as a single comparative climate metric between sites that accounts for temperature and precipitation differences, we examine the interaction between FGT and aridity on global patterns of termite deadwood discovery and decay through multivariate logistic and linear regressions.Termite‐driven decay and wood discovery increased with aridity; however, responses differed between FGT and NFGT sites. Wood discovery increased with aridity in FGT sites only, suggesting a greater role of FGT to deadwood decay in arid environments. On average, both termite discovery and decay of deadwood were approximately four times greater in regions with FGT compared with regions without FGT.Termite discovery and decay of deadwood is climate dependent, and higher decay may be through greater discovery of deadwood in FGT sites. Inclusion of biogeographical differences in termite distribution could potentially alter current and future global estimates of deadwood turnover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]