Dataset Information

Resolving the roles of body size and species identity in driving functional diversity.

ABSTRACT: Efforts to characterize food webs have generated two influential approaches that reduce the complexity of natural communities. The traditional approach groups individuals based on their species identity, while recently developed approaches group individuals based on their body size. While each approach has provided important insights, they have largely been used in parallel in different systems. Consequently, it remains unclear how body size and species identity interact, hampering our ability to develop a more holistic framework that integrates both approaches. We address this conceptual gap by developing a framework which describes how both approaches are related to each other, revealing that both approaches share common but untested assumptions about how variation across size classes or species influences differences in ecological interactions among consumers. Using freshwater mesocosms with dragonfly larvae as predators, we then experimentally demonstrate that while body size strongly determined how predators affected communities, these size effects were species specific and frequently nonlinear, violating a key assumption underlying both size- and species-based approaches. Consequently, neither purely species- nor size-based approaches were adequate to predict functional differences among predators. Instead, functional differences emerged from the synergistic effects of body size and species identity. This clearly demonstrates the need to integrate size- and species-based approaches to predict functional diversity within communities.

SUBMITTER: Rudolf VH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3953845 | biostudies-other | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Resolving the roles of body size and species identity in driving functional diversity.

Rudolf Volker H W VH Rasmussen Nick L NL Dibble Christopher J CJ Van Allen Benjamin G BG

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20140305 1781

Efforts to characterize food webs have generated two influential approaches that reduce the complexity of natural communities. The traditional approach groups individuals based on their species identity, while recently developed approaches group individuals based on their body size. While each approach has provided important insights, they have largely been used in parallel in different systems. Consequently, it remains unclear how body size and species identity interact, hampering our ability t ...[more]

PMID: 24598423

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Project description:The microbiota of invasive animal species may be pivotal to their adaptation and spread, yet the processes driving the assembly and potential sources of host-microbiota remain poorly understood. Here, we characterized microbiota of four Liriomyza leaf miner fly species totaling 310 individuals across 43 geographical populations in China and assessed whether the microbiota of the wild leaf miner was acquired from the soil microbiota or the host plant microbiota, using high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing. Bacterial communities differed significantly among four leaf miner species but did not mirror host phylogeny. Microbiota diversity in the native L. chinensis was significantly higher than in three invasive leaf miners (i.e., L. trifolii, L. huidobrensis, and L. sativae), yet the microbial community of the invasive species exhibited a more connected and complex network structure. Structural equation models revealed that host species identity was more important than environmental factors (e.g., geography, climate, or plants) in shaping microbiota composition. Using neutral and null model analyses, we found that deterministic processes like variable selection played a primary role in driving microbial community assembly, with some influence by stochastic processes like drift. The relative degree of these processes governing microbiota was likely correlated with host species but independent of either geographical or climatic factors. Finally, source tracking analysis showed that leaf miners might acquire microbes from their host plant rather than the soil. Our results provide a robust assessment of the ecological processes governing bacterial community assembly and potential sources of microbes in invasive leaf miners. IMPORTANCE The invasion of foreign species, including leaf miners, is a major threat to world biota. Host-associated microbiota may facilitate host adaption and expansion in a variety of ways. Thus, understanding the processes that drive leaf miner microbiota assembly is imperative for better management of invasive species. However, how microbial communities assemble during the leaf miner invasions and how predictable the processes remain unexplored. This work quantitatively deciphers the relative importance of deterministic process and stochastic process in governing the assembly of four leaf miner microbiotas and identifies potential sources of leaf miner-colonizing microbes from the soil-plant-leaf miner continuum. Our study provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying the drive of leaf miner microbiota assembly.

Dataset Information

Resolving the roles of body size and species identity in driving functional diversity.

Publications

Resolving the roles of body size and species identity in driving functional diversity.

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