SGER: A New Approach to Understanding Food Webs of the Forest-floor Arthropod Community

了解陆地食物网的功能需要对蜘蛛所捕食的猎物的多样性有定量的了解，因为蜘蛛是这些系统中的主要捕食者。该项目将开发一种生化技术来快速准确地分析流浪蜘蛛的饮食。一旦这项技术得到完善，将通过分析典型的多面手捕食者——裂蛛（Schizocosa oreata）的食性关系来检验其作为实地研究工具的可行性。这项研究使用聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳（PAGE）来检测蜘蛛内脏中的猎物蛋白质。对自然群落的审慎管理和保护取决于对食物网如何运作的基本理解。森林地面群落特别重要，因为它们常常控制着森林生产力生长的速率限制过程。该项目的结果将允许对森林地面群落的捕食动态进行定量分析。

Understanding the functioning of terrestrial food webs requires quantitative knowledge of the diversity of prey consumed by spiders, because spiders are major predators in these systems. This project will develop a biochemical technique to analyze rapidly and accurately the diets of wandering spiders. Once the technique is perfected, its feasibility as a tool in field research will be tested by analyzing the feeding relationships in a population of a model generalist predator, the wolf spider Schizocosa oreata. This research uses polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis (PAGE) to detect prey proteins in the guts of spiders. %%% Prudent management & conservation of natural communities depends on fundamental understanding of how food webs function. Forest - floor communities are particularly important because they often control rate - limiting processes for forest productivity & growth. The results of this project will allow quantitative analysis of predatory dynamic's in forest floor communities.