Multidimensional trophic niche revealed by complementary approaches: Gut content, digestive enzymes, fatty acids and stable isotopes in Collembola.

ABSTRACT: Trophic niche differentiation may explain coexistence and shape functional roles of species. In complex natural food webs, however, trophic niche parameters depicted by single and isolated methods may simplify the multidimensional nature of consumer trophic niches, which includes feeding processes such as food choice, ingestion, digestion, assimilation and retention. Here we explore the correlation and complementarity of trophic niche parameters tackled by four complementary methodological approaches, that is, visual gut content, digestive enzyme, fatty acid and stable isotope analyses-each assessing one or few feeding processes, and demonstrate the power of method combination. Focusing on soil ecosystems, where many omnivore species with cryptic feeding habits coexist, we chose Collembola

SUBMITTER: Potapov AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8453724 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature