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32 results for “dietary specialization”
A complete dietary review of Japanese birds with special focus on molluscs
<p>We present a new database reviewing dietary information for all Japanese bird species. The information within this database was collected through intense literary review to provide a complete look at bird species historically present around the country.</p>
Dietary specialization mirrors Rapoport's rule in European geometrid moths
<p><span><strong>Aim:</strong> </span><span>Latitudinal clines in dietary specialisation and range size are used to explain biodiversity distributions at large spatial scale, such as the latitudinal diversity gradient. The aim of this study was to test whether diet breadth (as a dimension of niche breadth) and range size decrease towards lower latitudes in a species-rich clade of herbivorous insects as predicted by the latitude – niche breadth hypothesis and Rapoport's rule, respectively. We further aimed at studying if these species characteristics are positively linked with each other as stated by the niche breadth – range size hypothesis. </span></p> <p><span><strong>Location:</strong> </span><span>Europe (35°N – 71°N)</span></p> <p><strong><span>Time period:</span></strong><span> Present-day</span></p> <p><span><strong>Major Taxa:</strong> </span><span>Geometrid moths (Lepidoptera, Geometridae)</span></p> <p><strong><span>Methods: </span></strong><span>For every species, we compiled information on latitudinal distribution and host-plant use based on available literature and online sources. We estimated each species' level of fundamental dietary specialisation while accounting for phylogenetic relationships among utilised host plants. We further reconstructed a phylogeny including all studied moth taxa in order to control for phylogenetic dependence in species characteristics. Phylogenetic least squares (PGLS) analyses were used to test each of our hypotheses.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Results: </span></strong><span>We analysed 631 species of geometrids (85.2% of taxa within the biogeographical region), and found strong support for the latitude – niche breadth hypothesis as well as for Rapoport's rule. Fundamental diet breadth was further found to be positively related to latitudinal range size, which supports the niche breadth – range size hypothesis. These results were retained when the subfamilies Ennominae and Larentiinae were analysed separately.</span></p> <p><span><strong>Main conclusions:</strong> </span><span>Our findings indicate that latitudinal clines in range size and fundamental diet breadth covary in European geometrid moths and are likely drivers of increased species richness towards lower latitudes. This supports the idea that both characteristics should be studied simultaneously in order to unveil mechanisms structuring biodiversity patterns at macroecological scale. </span></p>
Individual dietary specialization in a generalist bee varies across populations but has no effect on the richness of associated microbial communities
<p><span></span></p> <p>Despite the increasingly documented occurrence of individual specialization, the relationship between individual consumer interactions and diet-related microbial communities in wild populations is still unclear. Using data from nests of the bee <em>Ceratina australensis</em> from three different wild populations, we combine metabarcoding and network approaches to explore the existence of individual variation in resource use within and across populations, and whether dietary specialization affects the richness of pollen-associated microbes. We reveal the existence of marked dietary specialization. In the most specialized population, we also show that individuals' diet breadth was positively related to the richness of fungi, but not bacteria. Overall, individual specialization appeared to have a weak or negligible effect on the microbial richness of nests, suggesting that different mechanisms beyond environmental transmission may be at play regarding microbial acquisition in wild bees.</p>
Individual dietary specialization in a generalist bee varies across populations but has no effect on the richness of associated microbial communities
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Dietary specialization mirrors Rapoport’s rule in European geometrid moths
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Data from: Dietary specialization is linked to reduced species durations in North American fossil canids
How traits influence species persistence is a fundamental question in ecology, evolution, and paleontology. We test the relationship between dietary traits and both species duration and locality coverage over 40 million years in North American canids, a clade with considerable ecomorphological disparity and a dense fossil record. Because ecomorphological generalization--broad resource use--may enable species to withstand disturbance, we predicted that canids of average size and mesocarnivory would exhibit longer durations and wider distributions than specialized larger or smaller species. Second, because locality coverage might reflect dispersal ability and/or survivability in a range of habitats, we predicted that high coverage would correspond with longer durations. We find a non-linear relationship between species duration and degree of carnivory: species at either end of the carnivory spectrum tend to have shorter durations than mesocarnivores. Locality coverage shows no relationship with size, diet, nor duration. To test whether generalization (medium size, mesocarnivory) corresponds to an adaptive optimum, we fit trait evolution models to previously generated canid phylogenies. Our analyses identify no single optimum in size or diet. Instead, the primary model of size evolution is a classic Cope's Rule increase over time, while dietary evolution does not conform to a single model.
Data from: Human food subsidies drive individual specialization and intrapopulation dietary differences in a generalist predator
<p>Generalist species can exhibit individual specialization (IS), where individuals adopt specialized foraging behaviors not attributable to age, sex, or social dominance. While IS increases with the diversity of available foraging resources (ecological opportunity), the potential impact of human food subsidies on ecological opportunity is unknown. We quantified the isotopic niche width of Steller's Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri), a synanthropic predator and dietary generalist, across a gradient of human land-use categories ranging from subsidized (park campgrounds) to unsubsidized (forest interior) habitats in a protected area in California. We asked (1) if isotopic niche width was better predicted by individual foraging behavior than sex, social dominance, or habitat category (indicating IS) and (2) if degree of IS exhibited by jays increased with the availability of human food subsidies. We characterized the isotopic niche space occupied by individual jays relative to the population using carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values. Using linear models, we found that jay diet variation was best explained by individual behavior and habitat use rather than by sex or social dominance. While degree of IS increased with the availability of human foods, individual jays exhibited a variety of foraging behaviors in all habitats that were segregated by foraging stratum and use of human foods. Individual diet also determined the degree of specialization, as jays that specialized on human foods had the narrowest niche width regardless of habitat. Management efforts targeted at generalist wildlife exhibiting large degrees of IS should therefore account for the impact of food subsidies on foraging behavior. Approaches that involve aversive conditioning may fail where highly-specialized individuals are unlikely to encounter treatments, therefore we recommend simultaneous efforts to limit human food subsidies (e.g., information campaigns and improved containment of human food and food waste), and deployment across the largest possible extent of foraging microhabitats and substrates in order to ensure exposure of whole populations to emetic eggs.</p>
Vulture culture: dietary specialization of an obligate scavenger
<p><span>Individual dietary variation has important ecological and evolutionary consequences. However, it has been overlooked in many taxa that are thought to have homogeneous diets. This is the case of vultures, considered merely as "carrion eaters". Given their high degree of sociality, vultures are an excellent model to investigate how inter-individual transmissible behaviors drive individual dietary variation. Here, we combine GPS-tracking and accelerometers with an exhaustive fieldwork campaign to identify the individual diet of 55 griffon vultures (<em>Gyps</em> <em>fulvus</em>) from two Spanish populations that partially overlap in their foraging areas. We found that individuals from the more humanized population consumed more anthropic resources (e.g., stabled livestock or rubbish), resulting in more homogeneous diets. In contrast, individuals from the wilder population consumed more wild ungulates, increasing their dietary variability. Between sexes, we found that males consumed anthropic resources more than females did. Interestingly, in the shared foraging area, vultures retained the dietary preference of their original population, highlighting a strong cultural component. Overall, these results expand the role of cultural traits in shaping key behaviors, and call for the need of including cultural traits in Optimal Foraging models, especially in those species that strongly rely on social information while foraging.</span></p>
Reciprocated competition between two forest carnivores drives dietary specialization
<ol> <li>Competition shapes animal communities, but the strength of the interaction varies spatially depending on the availability and aggregation of resources and competitors. Among carnivores, competition is particularly pronounced with the strongest interactions between similar species with intermediate differences in body size. While ecologists have emphasized interference competition among carnivores based on dominance hierarchies from body size (smaller = subordinate; larger = dominant), the reciprocity of exploitative competition from subordinate species has been overlooked even though efficient exploitation can limit resource availability and influence foraging.</li> <li>Across North America, fishers (<em>Pekania</em> <em>pennanti</em>) and martens (<em>Martes</em> spp.) are two phylogenetically related forest carnivores that exhibit a high degree of overlap in habitat use and diet and differ in body size by a factor of 2–5x, eliciting particularly strong interspecific competition. In the Great Lakes region, fishers and martens occur both allopatrically and sympatrically; where they co-occur, the numerically dominant species varies spatially. This natural variation in competitors and environmental conditions enables comparisons to understand how interference and exploitative competition alter dietary niche overlap and foraging strategies.</li> <li>We analyzed stable isotopes (δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>15</sup>N) from 317 martens and 132 fishers, as well as dietary items (n = 629) from 20 different genera, to compare niche size and overlap. We then quantified individual diet specialization and modeled the response to environmental conditions that were hypothesized to influence individual foraging.</li> <li>Martens and fishers exhibited high overlap in both available and core isotopic δ-space, but no overlap of core dietary proportions. When the competitor was absent or rare both martens and fishers consumed more smaller-bodied prey. Notably, the dominant fisher switched from being a specialist of larger to smaller prey in the absence of the subordinate marten. Environmental context also influenced dietary specialization: increasing land cover diversity and prey abundance reduced specialization in martens whereas vegetation productivity increased specialization for both martens and fishers.</li> <li>Despite an important dominance hierarchy, fishers adjusted their niche in the face of a subordinate, but superior, exploitative competitor. These findings highlight the underappreciated role of the subordinate competitor in shaping the dietary niche of a dominant competitor.</li> </ol>
Data from: Dietary specialization is linked to reduced species durations in North American fossil canids
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Data from: Human food subsidies drive individual specialization and intrapopulation dietary differences in a generalist predator
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Deer dietary responses to wildfire: optimal foraging, individual specialization, or opportunism?
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Data and code from: Head morphology predicts prey traits and drives individual dietary specialization in generalist anurans
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Post K-Pg rise in ant and termite prevalence underlies convergent dietary specialization in mammals
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Vulture culture: dietary specialization of an obligate scavenger
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Reciprocated competition between two forest carnivores drives dietary specialization
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Data from: Dietary specialization is conditionally associated with increased ant predation risk in a temperate forest caterpillar community
The enemy-free space hypothesis (EFSH) contends that generalist predators select for dietary specialization in insect herbivores. At a community level, the EFSH predicts that dietary specialization reduces predation risk, and this pattern has been found in several studies addressing the impact of individual predator taxa or guilds. However, predation at a community level is also subject to combinatorial effects of multiple predator types, raising the question of how so-called multiple predator effects relate to dietary specialization in insect herbivores. Here we test the EFSH with a field experiment quantifying ant predation risk to insect herbivores (caterpillars) with and without the combined predation effects of birds. Assessing a community of 20 caterpillar species, we use model selection in a phylogenetic comparative framework to identify the caterpillar traits that best predict the risk of ant predation. A caterpillar species' abundance, dietary specialization, and behavioral defenses were important predictors of its ant predation risk. Abundant caterpillar species had increased its risk of ant predation irrespective of bird predation. Caterpillar species with broad diet breadth and behavioral responsiveness to attack had reduced ant predation risk, but these ant effects only occurred when birds also had access to the caterpillar community. These findings suggest that ant predation of caterpillar species is density- or frequency-dependent, that ants and birds may impose countervailing selection on dietary specialization within the same herbivore community, and that contingent effects of multiple predators may generate behaviorally mediated life history trade-offs associated with herbivore diet breadth.
Detection of prey odors underpins dietary specialization in a Neotropical top-predator: how army ants find their ant prey
<p>1. Deciphering the mechanisms that underpin dietary specialization and niche partitioning is crucial to understanding the maintenance of biodiversity. New world army ants live in species-rich assemblages throughout the Neotropics and are voracious predators of other arthropods. They are therefore an important and potentially informative group for addressing how diverse predator assemblages partition available prey resources. 2. New World army ants are largely specialist predators of other ants, with each species specializing on different ant genera. However, the mechanisms of prey choice are unknown. In this study, we addressed whether the army ant Eciton hamatum: 1) can detect potential prey odors, 2) can distinguish between odors of prey and non-prey, and 3) can differentiate between different types of odors associated with its prey. 3. Using field experiments, we tested the response of army ants to the following four odor treatments: alarm odors, dead ants, live ants, and nest material. Each treatment had a unique combination of odor sources and included some movement in two of the treatments (alarm and live ants). Odor treatments were tested for both prey and non-prey ants. These data were used to determine the degree to which E. hamatum are using specific prey stimuli to detect potential prey and direct their foraging. 4. Army ants responded strongly to odors derived from prey ants, which triggered both increased localized recruitment and slowed advancement of the raid as they targeted the odor source. Odors from non-prey ants were largely ignored. Additionally, the army ants had the strongest response to the nest material of their preferred prey, with progressively weaker responses across the live ant, dead ant, and alarm odors treatments, respectively. 5. This study reveals that the detection of prey odors, and especially the most persistent odors related to the prey's nest, provides a mechanism for dietary specialization in army ants. If ubiquitous across the Neotropical army ants, then this olfaction-based ecological specialization may facilitate patterns of resource partitioning and coexistence in these diverse predator communities. 08-Jan-2020</p>
Individual dietary specialization in a generalist predator: A stable isotope analysis of urban and rural red foxes
<p>Some carnivores are known to survive well in urban habitats, yet the underlying behavioural tactics are poorly understood. One likely explanation for the success in urban habitats might be that carnivores are generalist consumers. However, urban populations of carnivores could as well consist of specialist feeders. Here, we compared the isotopic specialization of red foxes in urban and rural environments, using both a population and an individual level perspective. We measured stable isotope ratios in increments of red fox whiskers and potential food sources. Our results reveal that red foxes have a broad isotopic dietary niche and a large variation in resource use. Despite this large variation, we found significant differences between the variance of the urban and rural population for δ<sup>13</sup>C as well as δ<sup>15</sup>N values, suggesting a habitat-specific foraging behaviour. Although urban regions are more heterogeneous regarding land cover (based on the Shannon index) than rural regions, the dietary range of urban foxes was smaller compared to that of rural conspecifics. Moreover, the higher δ<sup>13</sup>C values and lower δ<sup>15</sup>N values of urban foxes suggest a relatively high input of anthropogenic food sources. The diet of most individuals remained largely constant over a longer period. The low intra-individual variability of urban and rural red foxes suggests a relatively constant proportion of food items consumed by individuals. Urban and rural foxes utilized a small proportion of the potentially available isotopic dietary niche as indicated by the low within-individual variation compared to the between-individual variation. We conclude that generalist fox populations consist of individual food specialists in urban and rural populations<b> </b>at least over those periods covered by our study.</p>
Data from: Dietary specialization is conditionally associated with increased ant predation risk in a temperate forest caterpillar community
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