Species composition of shoreline wolf spider communities vary with salinity but their diets vary with wrack inflow

Abstract

Wolf spiders are typically the most common group of arthropod predators on both lake and marine shorelines, because of the high prey availability in these habitats. However, shores are also harsh environments due to flooding and, in proximity to marine waters, to toxic salinity levels. Here, we describe the spider community, prey availabilities and spider diets between shoreline sites with different salinities, albeit with comparatively small differences (5 vs. 7‰). Despite the small environmental differences, spider communities between low and higher saline sites showed an almost complete species turnover. At the same time, differences in prey availability or spider gut contents did not match changes in spider species composition but rather changed with habitat characteristics within region, where spiders collected at sites with thick wrack beds had a different diet than sites with little wrack. These data suggest that shifts in spider communities are due to habitat characteristics rather than prey availabilities, and the most likely candidate restricting species in high salinity would be saline sensitivity. At the same time, species absences from low-saline habitats remain unresolved.

Species composition of shoreline wolf spider communities vary with salinity, but their diets vary with wrack inflow

“…The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Dryad at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gxd2547qk (Hambäck et al, 2023).…”

“…The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Dryad at http://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gxd25 47qk (Hambäck et al, 2023). Note: Species id is provided as multiple species or genus level when the identity cannot be resolved (i.e., multiple species with sequence similarity >97%).…”