Traits reveal ecological strategies driving carrion insect community assembly
Traits reveal ecological strategies driving carrion insect community assembly
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DOI：
10.1111/een.12869
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发表时间：
2020-03-31
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Barton, Philip S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Evans, Maldwyn J.;Wallman, James F.;Barton, Philip S.
1.腐肉相关（嗜尸）昆虫在腐肉上的演替是有据可查的。为了利用腐肉分解过程中不断变化的营养和动态资源，不同的物种在可预测的时间序列中殖民和消费腐肉。这些嗜尸昆虫的特征应该反映了它们的生态策略。然而，这些昆虫的形态特征，如身体大小和翅膀大小，以前没有在活跃和高级分解过程中进行过研究。我们使用四角多元广义线性模型来识别昆虫群落形态特征模式，并量化它们在草原和林地环境中分解兔尸体时随时间的变化.我们发现，体型较大的苍蝇和腐尸专家甲虫与分解的早期阶段有关。相反，蚂蚁的形态特征在尸体上没有随着时间的推移而变化，而是在草地和林地环境中表现出身体大小的差异.我们的研究结果表明，在腐肉分解过程早期到达的专业苍蝇和甲虫具有能够大规模快速发现腐肉的特性。多面手甲虫和蚂蚁不具有相同的特征，而是适应于在当地规模的首选栖息地类型中定位和消耗更广泛的资源。我们的研究结果提供了深入的形态适应与腐肉昆虫群落的不同组成部分的生态策略。此外，我们的研究结果提供了深入了解的群落组装动态结构的嗜尸昆虫物种的社区。
1. The succession of carrion-associated (necrophilous) insects on decomposing carrion is well documented. To exploit the changing nutritious and dynamic resources available throughout the carrion decomposition process, different species colonise and consume carrion in a predictable temporal sequence. The traits of these necrophilous insects should reflect their ecological strategies. Morphological traits of these insects, such as body size and wing size, however, have not previously been examined during active and advanced decomposition.2. We used fourth-corner multivariate generalised linear models to identify insect community morphological trait patterns and to quantify their change through time on decomposing rabbit carcasses in grassland and woodland environments.3. We found that larger-bodied species of flies and carrion-specialist beetles were associated with the early stages of decomposition. The morphological traits of ants, in contrast, showed no changes at carcasses through time and instead showed body size differences between grassland and woodland environments.4. Our findings indicate that specialist flies and beetles that arrive early in the decomposition process possess traits that enable rapid discovery of carrion at a large scale. Generalist beetles and ants do not share this same trait and are instead adapted to locate and consume a wider variety of resources in their preferred habitat type at their local scale.5. Our results provide insights into the morphological adaptations linked to the ecological strategies of distinct components of carrion insect communities. Further, our results offer insights into the community assembly dynamics that structure the communities of necrophilous insect species.