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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jordan CuffORCiD, Dr Fredric WindsorORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2023 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos.Generalist invertebrate predators are sensitive to weather conditions, but the relationship between their trophic interactions and weather is poorly understood. This study investigates how weather affects the identity and frequency of spider trophic interactions over time, alongside prey community structure, web characteristics and prey choice. Spiders (Linyphiidae and Lycosidae) and their prey were collected from barley fields in Wales, UK, from April to September 2017–2018. The gut contents of 300 spiders were screened using DNA metabarcoding, analysed via multivariate models and compared against prey availability using null models. When linyphiids were collected from webs, the height and area of webs were recorded and compared against weather conditions. Trophic interactions changed over time and with weather conditions, primarily related to concomitant changes in prey communities. Spiders did, however, appear to mitigate the effects of structural changes in prey communities through changing prey preferences according to prevailing weather conditions, possibly facilitated by adaptive web construction. Using these findings, we demonstrate that prey choice data collected under different weather conditions can be used to refine inter-annual predictions of spider trophic interactions, although prey abundance was secondary to diversity in driving the diet of these spiders. By improving our understanding of the interaction between trophic interactions and weather, we can better predict how ecological networks are likely to change over time in response to variation in weather conditions and, more urgently, global climate change.
Author(s): Cuff JP, Windsor FM, Tercel MPTG, Bell JR, Symondson WOC, Vaughan IP
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Ecography
Year: 2023
Volume: 2023
Issue: 7
Print publication date: 01/07/2023
Online publication date: 15/06/2023
Acceptance date: 20/04/2023
Date deposited: 20/04/2023
ISSN (print): 0906-7590
ISSN (electronic): 1600-0587
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06737
DOI: 10.1111/ecog.06737
Data Access Statement: Data are available from Zenodo Digital Repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7291565 (Cuff et al. 2022b).
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