TABLE 1.

Scavenging observations that can be used as indicators of ecosystem structure and function

Observation	Main Link to Ecosystem Structure and Function	Potential method of measurement and associated metrics	Example	Strength/Weakness
Apex and mesoscavengers	Whether an ecosystem has an intact and functional food web, whether there is likely to be efficient removal of carrion tissue and bones which accelerates biogeochemical cycling and regulates carrion availability to other scavengers.	Cameras on carrion to measure relative use of carcasses by apex and mesoscavengers, carrion, and bone persistence rates, and interactions and contact rates to assess competition and fear effects.	Cunningham et al. (2019)	Strength: Cameras are commonly used and a cost‐effective way to study vertebrate use of carcasses. Weakness: Large amounts of data to process.
Invertebrate scavengers	Whether an ecosystem has an intact and functional food web that includes invertebrate scavengers that can accelerate decomposition.	Cameras, pitfall, and sticky traps, sweep nets, manual collection from carrion to measure invertebrate presence, abundance, diversity, and richness as well as interactions with other species.	Farwig et al. (2014)	Strength: Invertebrates can be easily and cost effectively sampled around carcasses. Weakness: Taxonomic expertize is needed.
Microbes	Whether an ecosystem has a diverse microbial community; diverse communities are more likely to have a variety of saprotrophs and maintain functions during the decomposition disturbance. The presence of pathogenic microbes indicates disease spillover risk.	Molecular microbial ecology approaches, for example, swabbing carcasses to sample microbes at set intervals and identifying them using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing or other omic approaches; qPCR quantification of populations or functional genes of interest.	Maron et al. (2018)	Strength: Methods are established and could be used to identify pathogens. Weakness: Costs and expertize can be prohibitive.
Invasive scavengers	Whether an ecosystem is supporting invasive scavengers or invasive pathogenic microbes, and how invasive scavengers can influence energy flow through food webs.	Cameras, pitfall, and sticky traps, sweep nets, manual collection from carrion to measure invertebrate presence, abundance, diversity, and richness as well as interactions with other species. Molecular microbial ecology approaches (as above) for pathogens.	Abernethy et al. (2016)	Strength: Sampling methods for apex, meso, invertebrate scavengers, and microbes can be used to detect invasive species. Weakness: Costs and expertize can be prohibitive.