Introduction: Special issue on species interactions, ecological networks and community dynamics – Untangling the entangled bank using molecular techniques

Roslin, Tomas; Traugott, Michael; Jonsson, Mattias; Stone, Graham N.; Creer, Simon; Symondson, William Oliver Christian

doi:10.1111/mec.14974

Cited by 17 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…By contrast, DNA-based approaches can be faster, more efficient and taxonomically more comprehensive, allowing the simultaneous resolution of interactions and identification of morphologically-cryptic species (Hrček and Godfray 2015). Molecular approaches to the construction of ecological networks have become increasingly common over the last decade (Clare 2014, Evans et al 2016, Derocles et al 2018, Roslin et al 2019, Evans and Kitson 2020. Although high throughput, 'next generation sequencing' (NGS) methods are now routinely used to characterise bulk samples, their use for characterising trophic interactions in food webs has proved more challenging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular analyses reveal consistent food web structure with elevation in rainforestDrosophila- parasitoid communities

Jeffs

Terry

Higgie

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The analysis of interaction networks across spatial environmental gradients is a powerful approach to investigate the responses of communities to global change. Using a combination of DNA metabarcoding and traditional molecular methods we built bipartite Drosophila-parasitoid food webs from six Australian rainforest sites across gradients spanning 850 m in elevation and 5° Celsius in mean temperature. Our cost-effective hierarchical approach to network reconstruction separated the determination of host frequencies from the detection and quantification of interactions. The food webs comprised 5-9 host and 5-11 parasitoid species at each site, and showed a lower incidence of parasitism at high elevation. Despite considerable turnover in the relative abundance of host Drosophila species, and contrary to some previous results, fundamental metrics of network structure including nestedness and specialisation did not change significantly with elevation. Advances in community ecology depend on data from a combination of methodological approaches. It is therefore especially valuable to develop model study systems for sets of closely-interacting species that are diverse enough to be representative, yet still amenable to field and laboratory experiments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular analyses reveal consistent food web structure with elevation in rainforestDrosophila- parasitoid communities

Jeffs

Terry

Higgie

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…The insights presented in this study build on multiple methodological advances combined in a new way. Recent advances in DNA‐based diet analysis have allowed the qualitative description of diet contents across a range of taxa, information not attainable with traditional techniques (Roslin & Majaneva, ; Roslin et al, ). We are now advancing to the stage of quantification of diet contents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threats from the air: Damselfly predation on diverse prey taxa

Kaunisto

Roslin

Forbes

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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1. To understand the diversity and strength of predation in natural communities, researchers must quantify the total amount of prey species in the diet of predators. Metabarcoding approaches have allowed widespread characterization of predator diets with high taxonomic resolution. To determine the wider impacts of predators, researchers should combine DNA techniques with estimates of population size of predators using mark-release-recapture (MRR) methods, and with accurate metrics of food consumption by individuals.2. Herein, we estimate the scale of predation exerted by four damselfly species on diverse prey taxa within a well-defined 12-ha study area, resolving the prey species of individual damselflies, to what extent the diets of predatory species overlap, and which fraction of the main prey populations are consumed.3. We identify the taxonomic composition of diets using DNA metabarcoding and quantify damselfly population sizes by MRR. We also use predator-specific estimates of consumption rates, and independent data on prey emergence rates to estimate the collective predation pressure summed over all prey taxa and specific to their main prey (non-biting midges or chironomids) of the four damselfly species.4. The four damselfly species collectively consumed a prey mass equivalent to roughly 870 (95% CL 410-1,800) g, over 2 months. Each individual consumed 29%-66% (95% CL 9.4-123) of its body weight during its relatively short life span (2.1-4.7 days; 95% CL 0.74-7.9) in the focal population. This predation pressure was widely distributed across the local invertebrate prey community, including 4 classes, 19 orders and c. 140 genera. Different predator species showed extensive overlap in diets, with an average of 30% of prey shared by at least two predator species. 5. Of the available prey individuals in the widely consumed family Chironomidae, only a relatively small proportion (0.76%; 95% CL 0.35%-1.61%) were consumed. 6. Our synthesis of population sizes, per-capita consumption rates and taxonomic distribution of diets identifies damselflies as a comparatively minor predator group of aerial insects. As the next step, we should add estimates of predation by larger odonate species, and experimental removal of odonates, thereby establishing the full impact of odonate predation on prey communities. K E Y W O R D Sbarcoding, CO1, food web, insect, Odonata, predation pressure 1366 | Journal of Animal Ecology KAUNISTO eT Al.

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“…MENA identified the plant and mammal diet composition for six large mammals across three feeding guilds, accurately capturing the biodiversity of the area and characterizing the trophic structure and interaction patterns within the community at an exceptional taxonomic resolution, thereby improving traditional food web analysis and biomonitoring. Although previous studies have validated the use of DNA metabarcoding (Roslin et al, 2019), and created bipartite networks (Kartzinel et al, 2015;Pansu et al, 2019) or even a network of networks (Clare et al, 2019), few studies have yet characterized multitrophic networks with high taxonomic resolution, to characterize the extent of indirect links in a terrestrial system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, building robust ecological networks, particularly in response to perturbations and across communities that are comprised of different species, is challenging given the difficulty of observing trophic events and quantifying the strength of interactions between species. The advent of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) makes this kind of research remarkably more tractable (Roslin et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Ecological Network Analyses: An Effective Conservation Tool for the Assessment of Biodiversity, Trophic Interactions, and Community Structure

et al. 2020

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Introduction: Special issue on species interactions, ecological networks and community dynamics – Untangling the entangled bank using molecular techniques

Cited by 17 publications

References 51 publications

Molecular analyses reveal consistent food web structure with elevation in rainforestDrosophila- parasitoid communities

Molecular analyses reveal consistent food web structure with elevation in rainforestDrosophila- parasitoid communities

Threats from the air: Damselfly predation on diverse prey taxa

Molecular Ecological Network Analyses: An Effective Conservation Tool for the Assessment of Biodiversity, Trophic Interactions, and Community Structure

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