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Intraguild Predation Is Increased In Areas Of Low Prey Diversity In A Generalist Predator Community, Stella F. Uiterwaal, Amber J. Squires, Bennett A. Grappone, Brian Dillard, Ariadne Castaneda, Sora L. Kim, John P. Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

1. Niche differentiation and intraguild predation (IGP) can allow ecologically similar species to coexist, although it is unclear which coexistence mechanism predominates in consumer communities. Until now, a limited ability to quantify diets from metabarcoding data has precluded the use of sequencing data to determine the relative importance of these mechanisms.

2. Here, we pair a recent metabarcoding quantification approach with stable isotope analysis to examine diet composition in a wolf spider community.

3. We compare the prevalence of resource partitioning and IGP in these spiders and test whether factors that influence foraging performance, including individual identity, morphology, prey community and environmental conditions, …

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Intraguild Predation Is Increased In Areas Of Low Prey Diversity In A Generalist Predator Community, Stella F Uiterwaal, Amber Squires, Bennett Grappone, Brian Dillard, Ariadne Castaneda, Sora L. Kim, John Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

1. Niche differentiation and intraguild predation (IGP) can allow ecologically similar species to coexist, although it is unclear which coexistence mechanism predominates in consumer communities. Until now, a limited ability to quantify diets from metabarcoding data has precluded the use of sequencing data to determine the relative importance of these mechanisms.

2. Here, we pair a recent metabarcoding quantification approach with stable isotope analysis to examine diet composition in a wolf spider community.

3. We compare the prevalence of resource partitioning and IGP in these spiders and test whether factors that influence foraging performance, including individual identity, morphology, prey community …

Increased Productivity In Wet Years Drives A Decline In Ecosystem Stability With Nitrogen Additions In Arid Grasslands, Junfeng Wang, Johannes M.H. Knops, Chad E. Brassil, Chunsheng Mu

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Adding nutrients to nutrient-limited ecosystems typically lowers plant diversity and decreases species asynchrony. Both, in turn, decrease the stability of productivity in the response to negative climate fluctuations such as droughts. However, most classic studies examining stability have been done in relatively wet grasslands dominated by perennial grasses. We examined how nutrient additions influence the stability of productivity to rainfall variability in an arid grassland with a mix of perennial and annual species. Of the nutrients, only nitrogen increased productivity, and only in wet years. In addition, only nitrogen decreased the stability of productivity. Thus, nutrient addition makes ecosystem productivity …

Integrating Spatial And Temporal Approaches To Understanding Species Richness, Ethan P. White, S. K. Morgan Ernest, Peter B. Adler, Allen H. Hurlbert, S. Kathleen Lyons

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Understanding species richness patterns represents one of the most fundamental problems in ecology. Most research in this area has focused on spatial gradients of species richness, with a smaller area of emphasis dedicated to understanding the temporal dynamics of richness. However, few attempts have been made to understand the linkages between the spatial and temporal patterns related to richness. Here, we argue that spatial and temporal richness patterns and the processes that drive them are inherently linked, and that our understanding of richness will be substantially improved by considering them simultaneously. The species–time–area relationship provides a case in point: successful …

Contrasting Effects Of Plant Richness And Composition On Insect Communities: A Field Experiment, Nick M. Haddad, David Tilman, John Haarstad, Mark Ritchie, Johannes M.H. Knops

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

We experimentally separated the effects of two components of plant diversity—plant species richness and plant functional group richness—on insect communities. Plant species richness and plant functional group richness had contrasting effects on insect abundances, a result we attributed to three factors. First, lower insect abundances at higher plant functional group richness were explained by a sampling effect, which was caused by the increasing likelihood that one low-quality group, C4 grasses, would be present and reduce average insect abundances by 25%. Second, plant biomass, which was positively related to plant functional group richness, had a strong, positive effect on insect abundances. …