scholarly journals Soil community assembly varies across body sizes in a tropical forest

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie Zinger ◽  
Pierre Taberlet ◽  
Heidy Schimann ◽  
Aurélie Bonin ◽  
Frédéric Boyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Forest Plot ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Soil Mesofauna ◽  
Soil Community ◽  
Body Sizes

ABSTRACTThe relative influence of deterministic niche-based (i.e. abiotic conditions, biotic interactions) and stochastic-distance dependent neutral processes (i.e. demography, dispersal) in shaping communities has been extensively studied for various organisms, but is far less explored jointly across the tree of life, in particular in soil environments. Here, using a thorough DNA-based census of the whole soil biota in a large tropical forest plot, we show that soil aluminium, topography, and plant species identity are all important drivers of soil richness and community composition. Body size emerges as an important feature of the comparative ecology of the different taxa at the studied spatial scale, with microorganisms being more importantly controlled by environmental factors, while soil mesofauna rather display random spatial distribution. We infer that niche-based processes contribute differently to community assembly across trophic levels due to spatial scaling. Body size could hence help better quantifying important properties of multitrophic assemblages.

scholarly journals Body size determines soil community assembly in a tropical forest

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 528-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie Zinger ◽  
Pierre Taberlet ◽  
Heidy Schimann ◽  
Aurélie Bonin ◽  
Frédéric Boyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Soil Community

Size-dependent predation alters interactions between parasites and predators

2016 ◽  
Vol 94 (9) ◽  
pp. 631-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.V.L. Catania ◽  
J. Koprivnikar ◽  
S.J. McCauley
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Freshwater Systems ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Selective Foraging ◽  
Top Predators ◽  
Foraging Preferences ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Infectious Stage ◽  
Host Infection

Increasing evidence indicates that parasites play an important role within many systems as prey for higher trophic levels. Predation on parasites can decrease their numbers and may affect host infection rates. Cercariae, a free-living infectious stage of trematode parasites, are abundant in freshwater systems and are directly consumed by a number of freshwater predators. However, few studies have tested whether predators exhibit a preference for cercariae when alternative prey are available or how these preferences vary across predator body sizes. We assessed whether dragonfly larvae (dot-tailed whiteface, Leucorrhinia intacta (Hagen, 1861)), top predators in freshwater systems without fish, foraged preferentially when presented with two prey types, cercariae and zooplankton, and whether foraging preferences changed across predator body size. Body size of larval dragonfly predators was found to be significantly, and negatively, related to the fraction of cercariae in the diet. Larger bodied dragonfly larvae shifted their diet choice from cercariae to zooplankton. Changes in foraging selectivity as body size increases across a predator’s ontogeny can alter the strength of predator–prey interactions. Further investigation into size-selective foraging on parasites may provide new insights into the effects of predation on parasite abundance and transmission in natural systems.

scholarly journals Body size dependent dispersal influences stability in heterogeneous metacommunities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt E. Anderson ◽  
Ashkaan K. Fahimipour
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Dispersal Rate ◽  
Ecological Stability ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Heterogeneous Habitat ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
The Stability

AbstractBody size affects key biological processes across the tree of life, with particular importance for food web dynamics and stability. Traits influencing movement capabilities depend strongly on body size, yet the effects of allometrically-structured dispersal on food web stability are less well understood than other demographic processes. Here we study the stability properties of spatially-arranged model food webs in which larger bodied species occupy higher trophic positions, while species’ body sizes also determine the rates at which they traverse spatial networks of heterogeneous habitat patches. Our analysis shows an apparent stabilizing effect of positive dispersal rate scaling with body size compared to negative scaling relationships or uniform dispersal. However, as the global coupling strength among patches increases, the benefits of positive body size-dispersal scaling disappear. A permutational analysis shows that breaking allometric dispersal hierarchies while preserving dispersal rate distributions rarely alters qualitative aspects of metacommunity stability. Taken together, these results suggest that the oft-predicted stabilizing effects of large mobile predators may, for some dimensions of ecological stability, be attributed to increased patch coupling per se, and not necessarily coupling by top trophic levels in particular.

scholarly journals Body Size Dependent Dispersal Influences Stability in Heterogeneous Metacommunities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Anderson ◽  
Ashkaan Fahimipour
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Dispersal Rate ◽  
Ecological Stability ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Heterogeneous Habitat ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
The Stability

Abstract Body size affects key biological processes across the tree of life, with particular importance for food web dynamics and stability. Traits influencing movement capabilities depend strongly on body size, yet the effects of allometrically-structured dispersal on food web stability are less well understood than other demographic processes. Here we study the stability properties of spatially-arranged model food webs in which larger bodied species occupy higher trophic positions, while species' body sizes also determine the rates at which they traverse spatial networks of heterogeneous habitat patches. Our analysis shows an apparent stabilizing effect of positive dispersal rate scaling with body size compared to negative scaling relationships or uniform dispersal. However, as the global coupling strength among patches increases, the benefits of positive body size-dispersal scaling disappear. A permutational analysis shows that breaking allometric dispersal hierarchies while preserving dispersal rate distributions rarely alters qualitative aspects of metacommunity stability. Taken together, these results suggest that the oft-predicted stabilizing effects of large mobile predators may, for some dimensions of ecological stability, be attributed to increased patch coupling per se, and not necessarily coupling by top trophic levels in particular.

scholarly journals Body size dependent dispersal influences stability in heterogeneous metacommunities

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt E. Anderson ◽  
Ashkaan K. Fahimipour
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Dispersal Rate ◽  
Ecological Stability ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Heterogeneous Habitat ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
The Stability

AbstractBody size affects key biological processes across the tree of life, with particular importance for food web dynamics and stability. Traits influencing movement capabilities depend strongly on body size, yet the effects of allometrically-structured dispersal on food web stability are less well understood than other demographic processes. Here we study the stability properties of spatially-arranged model food webs in which larger bodied species occupy higher trophic positions, while species’ body sizes also determine the rates at which they traverse spatial networks of heterogeneous habitat patches. Our analysis shows an apparent stabilizing effect of positive dispersal rate scaling with body size compared to negative scaling relationships or uniform dispersal. However, as the global coupling strength among patches increases, the benefits of positive body size-dispersal scaling disappear. A permutational analysis shows that breaking allometric dispersal hierarchies while preserving dispersal rate distributions rarely alters qualitative aspects of metacommunity stability. Taken together, these results suggest that the oft-predicted stabilizing effects of large mobile predators may, for some dimensions of ecological stability, be attributed to increased patch coupling per se, and not necessarily coupling by top trophic levels in particular.

scholarly journals Predator–prey body size relationships when predators can consume prey larger than themselves

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 20121193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takefumi Nakazawa ◽  
Shin-ya Ohba ◽  
Masayuki Ushio
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Prey Size ◽  
The Other ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Fish Predators ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Prey Mass

As predator–prey interactions are inherently size-dependent, predator and prey body sizes are key to understanding their feeding relationships. To describe predator–prey size relationships (PPSRs) when predators can consume prey larger than themselves, we conducted field observations targeting three aquatic hemipteran bugs, and assessed their body masses and those of their prey for each hunting event. The data revealed that their PPSR varied with predator size and species identity, although the use of the averaged sizes masked these effects. Specifically, two predators had slightly decreased predator–prey mass ratios (PPMRs) during growth, whereas the other predator specialized on particular sizes of prey, thereby showing a clear positive size–PPMR relationship. We discussed how these patterns could be different from fish predators swallowing smaller prey whole.

scholarly journals A Farewell to the Encephalization Quotient: A New Brain Size Measure for Comparative Primate Cognition

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Carel P. van Schaik ◽  
Zegni Triki ◽  
Redouan Bshary ◽  
Sandra A. Heldstab
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Estimation Error ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Encephalization Quotient ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Size Measure

Both absolute and relative brain sizes vary greatly among and within the major vertebrate lineages. Scientists have long debated how larger brains in primates and hominins translate into greater cognitive performance, and in particular how to control for the relationship between the noncognitive functions of the brain and body size. One solution to this problem is to establish the slope of cognitive equivalence, i.e., the line connecting organisms with an identical bauplan but different body sizes. The original approach to estimate this slope through intraspecific regressions was abandoned after it became clear that it generated slopes that were too low by an unknown margin due to estimation error. Here, we revisit this method. We control for the error problem by focusing on highly dimorphic primate species with large sample sizes and fitting a line through the mean values for adult females and males. We obtain the best estimate for the slope of circa 0.27, a value much lower than those constructed using all mammal species and close to the value expected based on the genetic correlation between brain size and body size. We also find that the estimate of cognitive brain size based on cognitive equivalence fits empirical cognitive studies better than the encephalization quotient, which should therefore be avoided in future studies on primates and presumably mammals and birds in general. The use of residuals from the line of cognitive equivalence may change conclusions concerning the cognitive abilities of extant and extinct primate species, including hominins.

scholarly journals Selective logging reduces body size in omnivorous and frugivorous tropical forest birds

2021 ◽  
Vol 256 ◽  
pp. 109036
Author(s):  
Simone Messina ◽  
David Costantini ◽  
Suzanne Tomassi ◽  
Cindy C.P. Cosset ◽  
Suzan Benedick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Forest Birds

Thirty-eight years of change in a tropical forest: plot data from Mpanga Forest Reserve, Uganda

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Taylor ◽  
A. C. Hamilton ◽  
S. L. Lewis ◽  
G. Nantale
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Forest Plot ◽  
Forest Reserve
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