Revealing cryptic interactions between large mammalian herbivores and plant-dwelling arthropods via DNA metabarcoding.

ABSTRACT: In the past decade, it has become clear that omnivory, feeding on more than one trophic level, is important in natural and agricultural systems. Large mammalian herbivores (LMH) frequently encounter plant-dwelling arthropods (PDA) on their food plants. Yet, ingestion of PDA by LMH is only rarely addressed and the extent of this direct trophic interaction, especially at the PDA community level, remains unknown. Using a DNA-metabarcoding analysis on feces of free-ranging cattle from a replicated field experiment of heavily and moderately grazed paddocks, we reveal that feeding cattle (incidentally) ingest an entire food chain of PDA including herbivores, predators and parasites. Overall, 25 families of insects and four families of arachnids were ingested, a pattern that varied over the seaso

SUBMITTER: Berman TS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9286824 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature