Artigo
Dominant predators mediate the impact of habitat size on trophic structure in bromeliad invertebrate communities
Registro en:
Ecology. Washington: Ecological Soc Amer, v. 96, n. 2, p. 428-439, 2015.
0012-9658
10.1890/14-0304.1
WOS:000350484600014
Autor
Petermann, Jana S.
Farjalla, Vinicius F.
Jocque, Merlijn
Kratina, Pavel
MacDonald, A. Andrew M.
Marino, Nicholas A. C.
Omena, Paula M. de
Piccoli, Gustavo C. O. [UNESP]
Richardson, Barbara A.
Richardson, Michael J.
Romero, Gustavo Q.
Videla, Martin
Srivastava, Diane S.
Resumen
Local habitat size has been shown to influence colonization and extinction processes of species in patchy environments. However, species differ in body size, mobility, and trophic level, and may not respond in the same way to habitat size. Thus far, we have a limited understanding of how habitat size influences the structure of multitrophic communities and to what extent the effects may be generalizable over a broad geographic range. Here, we used water-filled bromeliads of different sizes as a natural model system to examine the effects of habitat size on the trophic structure of their inhabiting invertebrate communities. We collected composition and biomass data from 651 bromeliad communities from eight sites across Central and South America differing in environmental conditions, species pools, and the presence of large-bodied odonate predators. We found that trophic structure in the communities changed dramatically with changes in habitat (bromeliad) size. Detritivore:resource ratios showed a consistent negative relationship with habitat size across sites. In contrast, changes in predator:detritivore (prey) ratios depended on the presence of odonates as dominant predators in the regional pool. At sites without odonates, predator:detritivore biomass ratios decreased with increasing habitat size. At sites with odonates, we found odonates to be more frequently present in large than in small bromeliads, and predator:detritivore biomass ratios increased with increasing habitat size to the point where some trophic pyramids became inverted. Our results show that the distribution of biomass amongst food-web levels depends strongly on habitat size, largely irrespective of geographic differences in environmental conditions or detritivore species compositions. However, the presence of large-bodied predators in the regional species pool may fundamentally alter this relationship between habitat size and trophic structure. We conclude that taking into account the response and multitrophic effects of dominant, mobile species may be critical when predicting changes in community structure along a habitat-size gradient. University of British Columbia NSERC Swiss National Science Foundation Velux Foundation National Geographic Society Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) Royal Geographic Society (UK) Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Royal Society of Edinburgh Carnegie Trust for the universities of Scotland US National Science Foundation International Institute of Tropical Forestry Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research program in the Luquillo Experimental Forest USDA IITF Saba Conservation Foundation NSERC (National Science and Engineering Research Council) Canada Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Strasse 1-3, D-14195 Berlin, Germany Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany Department of Ecology, Biology Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), 7 Ilha do Fundão, P.O. Box 68020, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (KBIN), Vautierstraat 29, 1000 Brussels, Belgium Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, 195 University Avenue, Newark, New Jersey 07102 USA School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS United Kingdom Department of Zoology and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4 Canada Department of Animal Biology, Institute of Biology, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), CEP 13083 970, CP 6109, Campinas-SP, Brazil 10165 Braid Road, Edinburgh EH10 6JE United Kingdom Luquillo LTER, Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies, College of Natural Sciences, University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, P.O. Box 70377, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8377 USA Department of Animal Biology, Institute of Biology, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), CEP 13083 970, CP 6109, Campinas-SP, Brazil. Department of Zoology and Botany, IBILCE, State University of São Paulo (UNESP), São José do Rio Preto-SP, Brazil Swiss National Science Foundation: PBZHP3-128263 Velux Foundation: 651 National Geographic Society: 8833 FAPESP: 2009/51702-0 US National Science Foundation: DEB-0218039 US National Science Foundation: DEB-0620910 USDA IITF: 01-1G11120101-001