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Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence

The Hawaiian Islands offer a unique opportunity to test how changes in the properties of an isolated ecosystem are propagated through the organisms that occur within that ecosystem. The age-structured arrangement of volcanic-derived substrates follows a regular progression over space and, by inferen...

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Autores principales: Kennedy, Susan R., Dawson, Todd E., Gillespie, Rosemary G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866714/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29576984
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4527
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author Kennedy, Susan R.
Dawson, Todd E.
Gillespie, Rosemary G.
author_facet Kennedy, Susan R.
Dawson, Todd E.
Gillespie, Rosemary G.
author_sort Kennedy, Susan R.
collection PubMed
description The Hawaiian Islands offer a unique opportunity to test how changes in the properties of an isolated ecosystem are propagated through the organisms that occur within that ecosystem. The age-structured arrangement of volcanic-derived substrates follows a regular progression over space and, by inference, time. We test how well documented successional changes in soil chemistry and associated vegetation are reflected in organisms at higher trophic levels—specifically, predatory arthropods (spiders)—across a range of functional groups. We focus on three separate spider lineages: one that builds capture webs, one that hunts actively, and one that specializes on eating other spiders. We analyze spiders from three sites across the Hawaiian chronosequence with substrate ages ranging from 200 to 20,000 years. To measure the extent to which chemical signatures of terrestrial substrates are propagated through higher trophic levels, we use standard stable isotope analyses of nitrogen and carbon, with plant leaves included as a baseline. The target taxa show the expected shift in isotope ratios of δ(15)N with trophic level, from plants to cursorial spiders to web-builders to spider eaters. Remarkably, organisms at all trophic levels also precisely reflect the successional changes in the soil stoichiometry of the island chronosequence, demonstrating how the biogeochemistry of the entire food web is determined by ecosystem succession of the substrates on which the organisms have evolved.
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spelling pubmed-58667142018-03-25 Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence Kennedy, Susan R. Dawson, Todd E. Gillespie, Rosemary G. PeerJ Biochemistry The Hawaiian Islands offer a unique opportunity to test how changes in the properties of an isolated ecosystem are propagated through the organisms that occur within that ecosystem. The age-structured arrangement of volcanic-derived substrates follows a regular progression over space and, by inference, time. We test how well documented successional changes in soil chemistry and associated vegetation are reflected in organisms at higher trophic levels—specifically, predatory arthropods (spiders)—across a range of functional groups. We focus on three separate spider lineages: one that builds capture webs, one that hunts actively, and one that specializes on eating other spiders. We analyze spiders from three sites across the Hawaiian chronosequence with substrate ages ranging from 200 to 20,000 years. To measure the extent to which chemical signatures of terrestrial substrates are propagated through higher trophic levels, we use standard stable isotope analyses of nitrogen and carbon, with plant leaves included as a baseline. The target taxa show the expected shift in isotope ratios of δ(15)N with trophic level, from plants to cursorial spiders to web-builders to spider eaters. Remarkably, organisms at all trophic levels also precisely reflect the successional changes in the soil stoichiometry of the island chronosequence, demonstrating how the biogeochemistry of the entire food web is determined by ecosystem succession of the substrates on which the organisms have evolved. PeerJ Inc. 2018-03-21 /pmc/articles/PMC5866714/ /pubmed/29576984 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4527 Text en ©2018 Kennedy et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biochemistry
Kennedy, Susan R.
Dawson, Todd E.
Gillespie, Rosemary G.
Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence
title Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence
title_full Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence
title_fullStr Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence
title_full_unstemmed Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence
title_short Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence
title_sort stable isotopes of hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence
topic Biochemistry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866714/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29576984
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4527
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