Evaluating the relative importance of habitat filtering and niche differentiation in shaping the food web of dung-inhabiting predators

Sladecek, Frantisek Xaver Jiri; Zítek, Tomáš; Konvička, Martin; Segar, Simon T.

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2021.103767

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 66 publications

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“…Several studies have investigated such successional patterns in appearance of dung-associated arthropods, but most have been restricted to certain taxonomic groups. The vast majority have investigated coprophagous beetles (Gittings & Giller, 1998;Menéndez & Gutiérrez, 1999;Rentz & Price, 2016;Wassmer, 2020), some have looked at predatory beetles (Guimarães & Mendes, 1998;Sladecek et al, 2013;Sladecek, Zitek, et al, 2021), and a few have investigated flies (Sladecek et al, 2017), or flies and beetles in combination (Lee & Wall, 2006b). In general, these studies found that flies are early colonizers, followed by coprophagous beetles, and finally predators, facilitated by the appearance of prey species belonging to the former groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental DNA metabarcoding reveals temporal dynamics but functional stability of arthropod communities in cattle dung

Thomassen,

Sigsgaard,

Jensen

et al. 2024

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Terrestrial invertebrates are highly important for the decomposition of dung from large mammals. Mammal dung has been present in many of Earth's ecosystems for millions of years, enabling the evolution of a broad diversity of dung‐associated invertebrates that process various components of the dung. Today, large herbivorous mammals are increasingly introduced to ecosystems with the aim of restoring the ecological functions formerly provided by their extinct counterparts. However, we still know little about the ecosystem functions and nutrient flows in these rewilded ecosystems, including the dynamics of dung decomposition. In fact, the succession of insect communities in dung is an area of limited research attention also outside a rewilding context. In this study, we use environmental DNA metabarcoding of dung from rewilded Galloway cattle in an experimental set‐up to investigate invertebrate communities and functional dynamics over a time span of 53 days, starting from the time of deposition. We find a strong signal of successional change in community composition, including for the species that are directly dependent on dung as a resource. While several of these species were detected consistently across the sampling period, others appeared confined to either early or late successional stages. We believe that this is indicative of evolutionary adaptation to a highly dynamic resource, with species showing niche partitioning on a temporal scale. However, our results show consistently high species diversity within the functional groups that are directly dependent on dung. Our findings of such redundancy suggest functional stability of the dung‐associated invertebrate community, with several species ready to fill vacant niches if other species disappear. Importantly, this might also buffer the ecosystem functions related to dung decomposition against environmental change. Interestingly, alpha diversity peaked after approximately 20–25 days in both meadow and pasture habitats, and did not decrease substantially during the experimental period, probably due to preservation of eDNA in the dung after the disappearance of visiting invertebrates, and from detection of tissue remains and cryptic life stages.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental DNA metabarcoding reveals temporal dynamics but functional stability of arthropod communities in cattle dung

Thomassen,

Sigsgaard,

Jensen

et al. 2024

Journal of Animal Ecology

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The impact of dung beetles on the free-living stages of ruminant parasites in faeces and their role as biological control agents in grazing livestock

Forbes,

Scholtz

2024

Veterinary Parasitology

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The ephemeral resource patch concept

2022

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Ephemeral resource patches (ERPs) – short lived resources including dung, carrion, temporary pools, rotting vegetation, decaying wood, and fungi – are found throughout every ecosystem. Their short‐lived dynamics greatly enhance ecosystem heterogeneity and have shaped the evolutionary trajectories of a wide range of organisms – from bacteria to insects and amphibians. Despite this, there has been no attempt to distinguish ERPs clearly from other resource types, to identify their shared spatiotemporal characteristics, or to articulate their broad ecological and evolutionary influences on biotic communities. Here, we define ERPs as any distinct consumable resources which (i) are homogeneous (genetically, chemically, or structurally) relative to the surrounding matrix, (ii) host a discrete multitrophic community consisting of species that cannot replicate solely in any of the surrounding matrix, and (iii) cannot maintain a balance between depletion and renewal, which in turn, prevents multiple generations of consumers/users or reaching a community equilibrium. We outline the wide range of ERPs that fit these criteria, propose 12 spatiotemporal characteristics along which ERPs can vary, and synthesise a large body of literature that relates ERP dynamics to ecological and evolutionary theory. We draw this knowledge together and present a new unifying conceptual framework that incorporates how ERPs have shaped the adaptive trajectories of organisms, the structure of ecosystems, and how they can be integrated into biodiversity management and conservation. Future research should focus on how inter‐ and intra‐resource variation occurs in nature – with a particular focus on resource × environment × genotype interactions. This will likely reveal novel adaptive strategies, aid the development of new eco‐evolutionary theory, and greatly improve our understanding of the form and function of organisms and ecosystems.

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Evaluating the relative importance of habitat filtering and niche differentiation in shaping the food web of dung-inhabiting predators

Cited by 4 publications

References 66 publications

Environmental DNA metabarcoding reveals temporal dynamics but functional stability of arthropod communities in cattle dung

Environmental DNA metabarcoding reveals temporal dynamics but functional stability of arthropod communities in cattle dung

The impact of dung beetles on the free-living stages of ruminant parasites in faeces and their role as biological control agents in grazing livestock

The ephemeral resource patch concept

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