Biological Sciences Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Previous work suggests that animal water balance can influence trophic interactions, with predators increasing their consumption of water-laden prey to meet water demands.But it is unclear how the need for water interacts with the need for energy to drive trophic interactions under shifting conditions. Using manipulative field experiments, we show that water balance influences the effects of top predators on prey with contrasting ratios of water and energy, altering the frequency of intraguild predation. Water-stressed top predators (large spiders) negatively affect water-laden basal prey (crickets), especially male prey with higher water content, whereas alleviation of water limitation causes top predators to switch to negatively affecting energy-rich midlevel predators (small spiders). Thus, the relative water and energy content of multiple prey, combined with the water demand of the top predator, influences trophic interactions in ways that can alter the strength of intraguild predation. These findings underscore the need for integration of multi resource approaches for understanding implications of global change for food webs.
Copyright Statement
Publisher PDF
Repository Citation
Leinbach, Israel L.; McCluney, Kevin E.; and Sabo, John L., "Predator water balance alters intraguild predation in a streamsidefood web" (2019). Biological Sciences Faculty Publications. 63.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bio_sci_pub/63
Publication Date
1-29-2019
Publication Title
Ecology
Publisher
Wiley
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Biology Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons