Predator preferences shape the diets of arthropodivorous bats more than quantitative local prey abundance

Although most predators are generalists, the majority of studies on the association between prey availability and prey consumption have focused on specialist predators. To investigate the role of highly generalist predators in a complex food web, we measured the relationships between prey consumptio...

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Vydáno v:Molecular ecology Ročník 30; číslo 3; s. 855 - 873
Hlavní autoři: Wray, Amy K., Peery, M. Zachariah, Jusino, Michelle A., Kochanski, Jade M., Banik, Mark T., Palmer, Jonathan M., Lindner, Daniel L., Gratton, Claudio
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2021
Témata:
Abundance
amplicon sequencing
Animal behavior
Availability
Chiroptera
Community structure
Diet
diet analysis
DNA metabarcoding
Food chains
food composition
Food webs
mock community
Predation
Predators
Prey
prey species
probability
Seasonal variations
food webs
mock community
amplicon sequencing
diet analysis
DNA metabarcoding
Chiroptera
ISSN:0962-1083, 1365-294X, 1365-294X
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Shrnutí:Although most predators are generalists, the majority of studies on the association between prey availability and prey consumption have focused on specialist predators. To investigate the role of highly generalist predators in a complex food web, we measured the relationships between prey consumption and prey availability in two common arthropodivorous bats. Specifically, we used high‐throughput amplicon sequencing coupled with a known mock community to characterize seasonal changes in little brown and big brown bat diets. We then linked spatiotemporal variation in prey consumption with quantitative prey availability estimated from intensive prey community sampling. We found that although quantitative prey availability fluctuated substantially over space and time, the most commonly consumed prey items were consistently detected in bat diets independently of their respective abundance. Positive relationships between prey abundance and probability of consumption were found only among prey groups that were less frequently detected in bat diets. While the probability of prey consumption was largely unrelated to abundance, the community structure of prey detected in bat diets was influenced by the local or regional abundance of prey. Observed patterns suggest that while little brown and big brown bats maintain preferences for particular prey independently of quantitative prey availability, total dietary composition may reflect some degree of opportunistic foraging. Overall, our findings suggest that generalist predators can display strong prey preferences that persist despite quantitative changes in prey availability.
Bibliografie:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:0962-1083
1365-294X
1365-294X
DOI:10.1111/mec.15769