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Majer A, Skoracka A, Spaak J, Kuczyński L. Higher-order species interactions cause time-dependent niche and fitness differences: Experimental evidence in plant-feeding arthropods. Ecol Lett 2024; 27:e14428. [PMID: 38685715 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/04/2024] [Indexed: 05/02/2024]
Abstract
Species interact in different ways, including competition, facilitation and predation. These interactions can be non-linear or higher order and may depend on time or species densities. Although these higher-order interactions are virtually ubiquitous, they remain poorly understood, as they are challenging both theoretically and empirically. We propose to adapt niche and fitness differences from modern coexistence theory and apply them to species interactions over time. As such, they may not merely inform about coexistence, but provide a deeper understanding of how species interactions change. Here, we investigated how the exploitation of a biotic resource (plant) by phytophagous arthropods affects their interactions. We performed monoculture and competition experiments to fit a generalized additive mixed model to the empirical data, which allowed us to calculate niche and fitness differences. We found that species switch between different types of interactions over time, including intra- and interspecific facilitation, and strong and weak competition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka Majer
- Population Ecology Lab, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
- Center for Advanced Technology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
| | - Anna Skoracka
- Population Ecology Lab, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
| | - Jürg Spaak
- Institute for Environmental Sciences, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Landau, Germany
| | - Lechosław Kuczyński
- Population Ecology Lab, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
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Song C, Spaak JW. Trophic tug-of-war: Coexistence mechanisms within and across trophic levels. Ecol Lett 2024; 27:e14409. [PMID: 38590122 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2023] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 03/06/2024] [Indexed: 04/10/2024]
Abstract
Ecological communities encompass rich diversity across multiple trophic levels. While modern coexistence theory has been widely applied to understand community assembly, its traditional formalism only allows assembly within a single trophic level. Here, using an expanded definition of niche and fitness differences applicable to multitrophic communities, we study how diversity within and across trophic levels affects species coexistence. If each trophic level is analysed separately, both lower- and higher trophic levels are governed by the same coexistence mechanisms. In contrast, if the multitrophic community is analysed as a whole, different trophic levels are governed by different coexistence mechanisms: coexistence at lower trophic levels is predominantly limited by fitness differences, whereas coexistence at higher trophic levels is predominantly limited by niche differences. This dichotomy in coexistence mechanisms is supported by theoretical derivations, simulations of phenomenological and trait-based models, and a case study of a primeval forest ecosystem. Our work provides a general and testable prediction of coexistence mechanism operating in multitrophic communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuliang Song
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Jurg W Spaak
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
- Institute for Environmental Sciences, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Landau, Germany
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Wong MKL, Lee RH, Leong CM, Lewis OT, Guénard B. Trait-mediated competition drives an ant invasion and alters functional diversity. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20220504. [PMID: 35765840 PMCID: PMC9240689 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The assumption that differences in species' traits reflect their different niches has long influenced how ecologists infer processes from assemblage patterns. For instance, many assess the importance of environmental filtering versus classical limiting-similarity competition in driving biological invasions by examining whether invaders' traits are similar or dissimilar to those of residents, respectively. However, mounting evidence suggests that hierarchical differences between species' trait values can distinguish their competitive abilities (e.g. for the same resource) instead of their niches. Whether such trait-mediated hierarchical competition explains invasions and structures assemblages is less explored. We integrate morphological, dietary, physiological and behavioural trait analyses to test whether environmental filtering, limiting-similarity competition or hierarchical competition explain invasions by fire ants on ant assemblages. We detect both competition mechanisms; invasion success is not only explained by limiting similarity in body size and thermal tolerance (presumably allowing the invader to exploit different niches from residents), but also by the invader's superior position in trait hierarchies reflecting competition for common trophic resources. We find that the two mechanisms generate complex assemblage-level functional diversity patterns-overdispersion in some traits, clustering in others-suggesting their effects are likely missed by analyses restricted to a few traits and composite trait diversity measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark K L Wong
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.,School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Roger H Lee
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China
| | - Chi-Man Leong
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China
| | - Owen T Lewis
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Benoit Guénard
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China
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Lue CH, Buffington ML, Scheffer S, Lewis M, Elliott TA, Lindsey ARI, Driskell A, Jandova A, Kimura MT, Carton Y, Kula RR, Schlenke TA, Mateos M, Govind S, Varaldi J, Guerrieri E, Giorgini M, Wang X, Hoelmer K, Daane KM, Abram PK, Pardikes NA, Brown JJ, Thierry M, Poirié M, Goldstein P, Miller SE, Tracey WD, Davis JS, Jiggins FM, Wertheim B, Lewis OT, Leips J, Staniczenko PPA, Hrcek J. DROP: Molecular voucher database for identification of Drosophila parasitoids. Mol Ecol Resour 2021; 21:2437-2454. [PMID: 34051038 DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.13435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Molecular identification is increasingly used to speed up biodiversity surveys and laboratory experiments. However, many groups of organisms cannot be reliably identified using standard databases such as GenBank or BOLD due to lack of sequenced voucher specimens identified by experts. Sometimes a large number of sequences are available, but with too many errors to allow identification. Here, we address this problem for parasitoids of Drosophila by introducing a curated open-access molecular reference database, DROP (Drosophila parasitoids). Identifying Drosophila parasitoids is challenging and poses a major impediment to realize the full potential of this model system in studies ranging from molecular mechanisms to food webs, and in biological control of Drosophila suzukii. In DROP, genetic data are linked to voucher specimens and, where possible, the voucher specimens are identified by taxonomists and vetted through direct comparison with primary type material. To initiate DROP, we curated 154 laboratory strains, 856 vouchers, 554 DNA sequences, 16 genomes, 14 transcriptomes, and six proteomes drawn from a total of 183 operational taxonomic units (OTUs): 114 described Drosophila parasitoid species and 69 provisional species. We found species richness of Drosophila parasitoids to be heavily underestimated and provide an updated taxonomic catalogue for the community. DROP offers accurate molecular identification and improves cross-referencing between individual studies that we hope will catalyse research on this diverse and fascinating model system. Our effort should also serve as an example for researchers facing similar molecular identification problems in other groups of organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chia-Hua Lue
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Department of Biology, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY), Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Matthew L Buffington
- Systematic Entomology Laboratory, ARS/USDA c/o Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Sonja Scheffer
- Systematic Entomology Laboratory, ARS/USDA c/o Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Matthew Lewis
- Systematic Entomology Laboratory, ARS/USDA c/o Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Tyler A Elliott
- Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | | | - Amy Driskell
- Laboratories of Analytical Biology, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Anna Jandova
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | | | - Yves Carton
- "Évolution, Génomes, Comportement, Écologie", CNRS et Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France
| | - Robert R Kula
- Systematic Entomology Laboratory, ARS/USDA c/o Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Todd A Schlenke
- Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Mariana Mateos
- Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Shubha Govind
- The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
| | - Julien Varaldi
- CNRS, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR 5558, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France
| | - Emilio Guerrieri
- CNR-Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (CNR-IPSP), National Research Council of Italy, Portici, Italy
| | - Massimo Giorgini
- CNR-Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (CNR-IPSP), National Research Council of Italy, Portici, Italy
| | - Xingeng Wang
- United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Services, Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit, Newark, DE, USA
| | - Kim Hoelmer
- United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Services, Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit, Newark, DE, USA
| | - Kent M Daane
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Paul K Abram
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Agassiz Research and Development Centre, Agassiz, BC, Canada
| | - Nicholas A Pardikes
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Joel J Brown
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, Czech Republic
| | - Melanie Thierry
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, Czech Republic
| | - Marylène Poirié
- INRAE, CNRS. and Evolution and Specificity of Multitrophic Interactions (ESIM) Sophia Agrobiotech Institute, Université "Côte d'Azur", Sophia Antipolis, France
| | - Paul Goldstein
- Systematic Entomology Laboratory, ARS/USDA c/o Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Scott E Miller
- Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
| | - W Daniel Tracey
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Gill Center for Biomolecular Science, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Jeremy S Davis
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Biology Department, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | | | - Bregje Wertheim
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Owen T Lewis
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Jeff Leips
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Phillip P A Staniczenko
- Department of Biology, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY), Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Jan Hrcek
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, Czech Republic
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