Reforestations of Tropical Forests Alter Interactions Between Web-Building Spiders and Their Prey

Michalko, Radek; Košulič, Ondřej; Wongprom, Prasit; Songsangchote, Chaowalit; Saksongmuang, Venus; Trisurat, Yongyut

doi:10.1007/s10021-021-00627-7

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Moreover, per capita capture numbers of most herbivorous groups decreased with increasing infestation while their availability increased or did not change. This is in contrast with Michalko et al (2021), who showed that dense vegetation cover in tropical forests increased the capture efficacy of Diptera but did not affect the capture efficacy of Coleoptera, even though the vegetation structure had a similar effect on web type composition as in the current study. Spiders have been found to supress herbivores and reduce herbivory in studied ash plantations (Khum, 2020).…”

Section: Composition Of Actual Preycontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…These results are similar to tropical forests where the mean body size of web‐building spiders in understories with dense shrub and herb coverage decreased due to the exclusion of large orb‐web and space‐web spiders (Michalko et al. 2021).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…For example, the per capita capture rate of Sternorrhyncha increased with the dominance of the sheet‐web spiders that are especially effective in capturing this prey type (Michalko & Pekár, 2016). Except for predaceous Coleoptera, the capture rate did not follow the prey availability, which means that predation by the web‐building spider community is mostly density‐independent (Arvidsson et al., 2020; Birkhofer et al., 2016; Diehl et al., 2013; Michalko et al., 2021). Moreover, per capita capture numbers of most herbivorous groups decreased with increasing infestation while their availability increased or did not change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As spider web type determines, to a large extent, the composition of intercepted prey (Michalko & Pekár, 2016) and spider body size determines prey body size (Nentwig & Wissel, 1986), we expected that the changes in trait composition in spider communities would modify the composition of intercepted prey and network structure (Birkhofer et al., 2018; Michalko et al. 2021). We expected that the importance of Diptera, Hymenoptera and Coleoptera prey in local diets and the prey mean body size would increase with fungal infestation due to an increasing abundance of large orb‐web and space‐web spiders (Michalko & Pekár, 2016; Nentwig & Wissel, 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This will increase the proportion of large orb-web and space-web spiders because these species respond more intensively to habitat complexity than sheet-web spiders (Rypstra, 1983). As spider web type determines, to a large extent, the composition of intercepted prey (Michalko & Pekár, 2016) and spider body size determines prey body size (Nentwig & Wissel, 1986), we expected that the changes in trait composition in spider communities would modify the composition of intercepted prey and network structure (Birkhofer et al, 2018;Michalko et al 2021). We expected that the that H. fraxineus represents a threat to the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the simplified ecosystems of ash plantations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disturbance by invasive pathogenic fungus alters arthropod predator–prey food‐webs in ash plantations

Michalko

Košulič

Martinek

et al. 2021

Journal of Animal Ecology

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1. According to the disturbance-succession theory, natural disturbances support biodiversity and are expected to increase the complexity of food-webs in forest ecosystems by opening canopies and creating a heterogeneous environment.However, a limited number of studies have investigated the impact of disturbance by invasive pathogenic species and succession on arthropod predator-prey foodwebs in forest ecosystems. 2.Hymenoscyphus fraxineus is a pathogenic fungus of ash trees that is invasive in Europe and causes massive dieback, mainly of the common ash Fraxinus excelsior across its native range. Here we investigated how this pathogenic fungus affects food-webs of web-building spiders and their prey in understorey vegetation of ash plantations.3. In 23 young and middle-aged ash plantations that were distributed along a gradient of infestation by H. fraxineus (29%-86% infestation), we measured the vegetation structure (canopy openness, shrub coverage, herb/grass coverage), the trait composition of local spider communities (web type, body size), the prey availability and the prey intercepted by spider webs. We then evaluated the multivariate prey composition (prey type, body size) and network properties. 4. Hymenoscyphus fraxineus opened the ash tree canopy, which resulted in denser shrub coverage. The dense shrub vegetation changed the composition of web types in local spider communities and increasing fungus infestation resulted in reduced mean body size of spiders. Infestation by H. fraxineus reduced the availability of predaceous Coleoptera and increased the availability of herbivorous Coleoptera as potential prey. The mean body size of captured prey and the per capita capture rates of most prey groups decreased with increasing fungus infestation. Hymenoscyphus fraxineus infestation indirectly reduced the complexity in bipartite networks and the trophic functional complementarity in local webbuilding spider communities. The plantation age affected the vegetation structure but did not affect the studied food-webs.5. Forest disturbance by the invasive pathogen affected four trophic levels (plantherbivore-coleopteran intermediate predator-top predator web-building spiders)and, contrary to the disturbance-succession theory, disturbance by the fungus simplified the web-building spider-prey food-webs. The results support the view

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Section: Composition Of Actual Preycontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disturbance by invasive pathogenic fungus alters arthropod predator–prey food‐webs in ash plantations

Michalko

Košulič

Martinek

et al. 2021

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Transformation of dry dipterocarp to dry evergreen forests alters food webs of web-building spiders and their prey

Michalko,

Songsangchote,

Saksongmuang

et al. 2024

J Insect Conserv

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Anthropogenic habitat modification is a major contributor to global change. While the modification of natural habitats to agroecosystems attracts most of the attention, little is known about the conversion of one natural ecosystem to another. Dry dipterocarp forest is the key dry forest type across Southeast Asia. Moderate fire disturbance is essential for its regeneration, but humans often prevent fire in these forests. Consequently, dry dipterocarps can change to dry evergreen forests through succession. The consequences of this conversion on food webs are unknown. Using the network approach, we compared the food webs of web-building spiders and their prey in the understory between dry dipterocarp (open canopy, uniform understory) and dry evergreen forests (closed canopy, heterogeneous understory) in north-eastern Thailand. Overall, we collected 560 individual web-building spiders belonging to 37 genera. Further, we collected 1139 prey items from spider webs belonging to 16 arthropod orders. The composition of captured prey and the network structure differed between the forest types. Specifically, the web-building spiders were more specialized and their niches overlapped less in dry dipterocarps than in dry evergreens. The differences in food-web structure were driven mostly by trophic groups turnover rather than interaction rewiring. Implications for insect conservation: The transformation of dry dipterocarp to dry evergreen forests from the prevention of fire disturbance may lead to an altered ecological function of web-building spiders in forest understories. As trophic links and their strength are rewired, habitat modification may also lead to changes in nutrient and energy flow in forest understories.

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Changes in community composition and prey capture of web-building spiders during rice field development

Saksongmuang,

Michalko,

Petcharad

et al. 2024

Basic and Applied Ecology

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Reforestations of Tropical Forests Alter Interactions Between Web-Building Spiders and Their Prey

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

Disturbance by invasive pathogenic fungus alters arthropod predator–prey food‐webs in ash plantations

Disturbance by invasive pathogenic fungus alters arthropod predator–prey food‐webs in ash plantations

Transformation of dry dipterocarp to dry evergreen forests alters food webs of web-building spiders and their prey

Changes in community composition and prey capture of web-building spiders during rice field development

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