title: Trophic and Non-Trophic Interactions in a Biodiversity Experiment Assessed by Next-Generation Sequencing.
abstract: Plant diversity affects species richness and abundance of taxa at higher trophic levels. However, plant diversity effects on omnivores (feeding on multiple trophic levels) and their trophic and non-trophic interactions are not yet studied because appropriate methods were lacking. A promising approach is the DNA-based analysis of gut contents using next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Here, we integrate NGS-based analysis into the framework of a biodiversity experiment where plant taxonomic and functional diversity were manipulated to directly assess environmental interactions involving the omnivorous ground beetle Pterostichus melanarius. Beetle regurgitates were used for NGS-based analysis with universal 18S rDNA primers for eukaryotes. We detected a wide range of taxa with the NGS approach in regurgitates, including organisms representing trophic, phoretic, parasitic, and neutral interactions with P. melanarius. Our findings suggest that the frequency of (i) trophic interactions increased with plant diversity and vegetation cover; (ii) intraguild predation increased with vegetation cover, and (iii) neutral interactions with organisms such as fungi and protists increased with vegetation cover. Experimentally manipulated plant diversity likely affects multitrophic interactions involving omnivorous consumers. Our study therefore shows that trophic and non-trophic interactions can be assessed via NGS to address fundamental questions in biodiversity research.
authors: Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August University Goettingen, Grisebachstr. 6, 37077, Goettingen, Germany.|Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Muenster, Heisenbergstr. 2, 48149, Muenster, Germany.
authors: Julia
authors: J
authors: Tiede
authors: Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology, Georg-August University Goettingen, Grisebachstr. 8, 37077, Goettingen, Germany.
authors: Bernd
authors: B
authors: Wemheuer
authors: Mountain Agriculture Research Unit, Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Traugott
authors: Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology, Georg-August University Goettingen, Grisebachstr. 8, 37077, Goettingen, Germany.
authors: Rolf
authors: R
authors: Daniel
authors: Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August University Goettingen, Grisebachstr. 6, 37077, Goettingen, Germany.
authors: Teja
authors: T
authors: Tscharntke
authors: Institute of Ecology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743, Jena, Germany.
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Ebeling
authors: Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August University Goettingen, Grisebachstr. 6, 37077, Goettingen, Germany.|Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Muenster, Heisenbergstr. 2, 48149, Muenster, Germany.
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Scherber
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000737:chemistry; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D020387:Food Chain; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant