Prey nutrient content is associated with the trophic interactions of spiders and their prey selection under field conditions

Cuff, Jordan, Tercel, Maximillian, Vaughan, Ian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7263-3822, Drake, Lorna, Wilder, Shawn, Bell, James, Muller, Carsten ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0455-7132, Orozco Ter Wengel, Pablo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7951-4148 and Symondson, William ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3343-4679 2024. Prey nutrient content is associated with the trophic interactions of spiders and their prey selection under field conditions. Oikos 10.1111/oik.10712

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Abstract

Consumers are thought to select food resources based on their nutritional content. While laboratory experiments have explored this, the nutritional dynamics of invertebrate predators have been scarcely studied in the field given various methodological constraints. The intersection of these nutritional dynamics with predator traits is also poorly characterised, leading to many gaps in our understanding of how different predators forage and feed in natural systems. Here, we integrate dietary metabarcoding with prey macronutrient (protein, lipid and carbohydrate) content and abundance to assess how nutrients and predator traits (sex, life stage and taxonomy) interactively drive prey preferences in the field, using spider–prey interactions as a model system. Different spider genera, sexes and life stages had nutritionally distinct diets. Our analyses demonstrated disproportionate foraging (selection and avoidance) for prey rich in different macronutrients, with the nature of these relationships differing between spider taxa, life stages and sexes. This may be explained by niche differentiation among spider groups, driven by biases toward prey rich in different nutrients, or nutrient-specific foraging in which individual spiders vary their nutritional preferences to redress deficits, although further evidence is required to confirm this. This insight into the nutritional dynamics of generalist invertebrate predators extends our understanding beyond lab-based behavioural assays and provides a novel framework for other complex real-world systems.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Biosciences
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	0030-1299
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 October 2024
Date of Acceptance:	23 September 2024
Last Modified:	31 Oct 2024 14:10
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/172944

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