Abstract
BackgroundUnderstanding feedback between above- and below-ground processes of biological communities is a key to the effective management of natural and agricultural ecosystems. However, as above- and below-ground food webs are often studied separately, our knowledge of material flow and community dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems remains limited.ResultsWe developed a high-throughput sequencing method for examining how spiders link above- and below-ground food webs as generalist predators. To overcome problems related to DNA-barcoding-based analyses of arthropod–arthropod interactions, we designed spider-specific blocking primers and Hexapoda-specific primers for the selective PCR amplification of Hexapoda prey sequences from spider samples. By applying the new DNA metabarcoding framework to spider samples collected in a temperate secondary forest in Japan, we explored the structure of a food web involving 15 spider species and various taxonomic groups of Hexapoda prey. These results support the hypothesis that multiple spider species in a community can prey on both above- and below-ground prey species, potentially coupling above- and below-ground food-web dynamics.ConclusionsThe PCR primers and metabarcoding pipeline described in this study are expected to accelerate nuclear marker-based analyses of food webs, illuminating poorly understood trophic interactions in ecosystems.
Highlights
Understanding feedback between above- and below-ground processes of biological communities is a key to the effective management of natural and agricultural ecosystems
We explored the structure of a food web involving multiple spider species and their Hexapoda prey by developing a new DNA metabarcoding approach
Based on Illumina sequencing of various families of web-weaving and non-web-weaving spider species collected in a temperate secondary forest in Japan, we examined whether multiple spider species in the community linked above- and below-ground food webs
Summary
Understanding feedback between above- and below-ground processes of biological communities is a key to the effective management of natural and agricultural ecosystems. As some groups of predators sustained by below-ground biomass eat above-ground prey [10,11,12], the presence of such generalist predators has been expected to stabilize above-ground food webs through the regulation of population dynamics of herbivorous insects in natural and agricultural ecosystems [13, 14]. These insights highlight the importance of ecosystem services provided by generalist predators linking above- and below-ground communities, we are just starting to understand the structure of food webs linking both below- and above-ground invertebrates.
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