Stream acidification and reduced aquatic prey availability are associated with dietary shifts in an obligate riparian Neotropical migratory songbird.

ABSTRACT: Streams and their surrounding riparian habitats are linked by reciprocal exchanges of insect prey essential to both aquatic and terrestrial consumers. Aquatic insects comprise a large proportion of total prey in riparian habitats and are opportunistically exploited by terrestrial insectivores; however, several species of songbirds are known to preferentially target aquatic prey via specialized foraging strategies. For these songbirds, reduced availability of aquatic insects via stream acidification may result in compensatory changes in provisioning during the nesting period, thereby influencing both adult and nestling diet composition. In this study, we used DNA metabarcoding to test the hypothesis that an obligate riparian Neotropical migratory songbird, the Louisiana Waterthrush (Park

SUBMITTER: Trevelline BK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6037135 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature