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Nonadditive effects of consumption in an intertidal macroinvertebrate community are independent of food availability but driven by complementarity effects.

ABSTRACT: Suboptimal environmental conditions are ubiquitous in nature and commonly drive the outcome of biological interactions in community processes. Despite the importance of biological interactions for community processes, knowledge on how species interactions are affected by a limiting resource, for example, low food availability, remains limited. Here, we tested whether variation in food supply causes nonadditive consumption patterns, using the macroinvertebrate community of intertidal sandy beaches as a model system. We quantified isotopically labeled diatom consumption by three macroinvertebrate species (Bathyporeia pilosa, Haustorius arenarius, and Scolelepis squamata) kept in mesocosms in either monoculture or a three-species community at a range of diatom densities. Our results show that B. pilosa was the most successful competitor in terms of consumption at both high and low diatom density, while H. arenarius and especially S. squamata consumed less in a community than in their respective monocultures. Nonadditive effects on consumption in this macroinvertebrate community were present and larger than mere additive effects, and similar across diatom densities. The underlying species interactions, however, did change with diatom density. Complementarity effects related to niche-partitioning were the main driver of the net diversity effect on consumption, with a slightly increasing contribution of selection effects related to competition with decreasing diatom density. For the first time, we showed that nonadditive effects of consumption are independent of food availability in a macroinvertebrate community. This suggests that, in communities with functionally different, and thus complementary, species, nonadditive effects can arise even when food availability is low. Hence, at a range of environmental conditions, species interactions hold important potential to alter ecosystem functioning.

SUBMITTER: van Egmond EM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5869218 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Nonadditive effects of consumption in an intertidal macroinvertebrate community are independent of food availability but driven by complementarity effects.

van Egmond Emily M EM van Bodegom Peter M PM van Hal Jurgen R JR van Logtestijn Richard S P RSP Berg Matty P MP Aerts Rien R

Ecology and evolution 20180216 6

Suboptimal environmental conditions are ubiquitous in nature and commonly drive the outcome of biological interactions in community processes. Despite the importance of biological interactions for community processes, knowledge on how species interactions are affected by a limiting resource, for example, low food availability, remains limited. Here, we tested whether variation in food supply causes nonadditive consumption patterns, using the macroinvertebrate community of intertidal sandy beache ...[more]

PMID: 29607008

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Project description:BackgroundThe German total diet study (TDS)-BfR MEAL Study-established its food list in 2016 based on food consumption data of children (0.5-<5 years) and adults (14-80 years). The list consists of 356 foods selected for analysis in order to ensure ≥90% coverage of the diet. Recently, new food consumption data for children (0.5-<6 and 6-<12 years) in Germany became available, which raised the opportunity to evaluate the applicability of the MEAL food list 2016 on new data.ObjectiveWe tested the hypotheses that the MEAL food list 2016 also covers ≥90% of the diet of the new collected food consumption data, and that the selection of foods from younger children and adults was sufficient to also cover the middle age group (6-<12 years). Strategies for updating the existing food list were assessed.MethodsThree approaches evaluated the reusability and potential adjustment strategies of the existing food list. Approach 1 applied the existing food list to new food consumption data. Approach 2 allowed the extension of the existing food list to improve coverage of food consumption. Approach 3 set up a new food list based on the new data.ResultsThe MEAL food list 2016 covered 94% of the overall diet of the new collected food consumption data. The diet of the middle age group was sufficiently covered with 91%. However, coverage on main food group or population subgroup level was <90% in some cases. Approach 3 most accurately identified relevant modifications to the existing food list. 94% of the MEAL food list 2016 could be re-used and 51 new foods were identified as potentially relevant.SignificanceThe results suggest that a high investment in the coverage of a TDS food list will lower the effort and the resources to keep data updated in the long-term.ImpactThere is no established approach to update a TDS food list. This study provides comparative approaches to handle newly collected food consumption data for follow-on TDS activities. The results provide useful information for institutions planning or updating a TDS. Furthermore, new food consumption data for children in Germany recently became available and are here presented for the first time.

Dataset Information

Nonadditive effects of consumption in an intertidal macroinvertebrate community are independent of food availability but driven by complementarity effects.

Publications

Nonadditive effects of consumption in an intertidal macroinvertebrate community are independent of food availability but driven by complementarity effects.

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