Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding
Sympatric species are expected to minimize competition by partitioning resources, especially when these are limited. Herbivores inhabiting the High Arctic in winter are a prime example of a situation where food availability is anticipated to be low, and thus reduced diet overlap is expected. We pres...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2367327 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115335 |
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ftntnutrondheimi:oai:ntnuopen.ntnu.no:11250/2367327 2023-05-15T15:01:57+02:00 Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding Soininen, Eeva M Gauthier, Gilles Bilodeau, Frederic Berteaux, Dominique Gielly, Ludovic Taberlet, Pierre Gussarova, Galina Bellemain, Eva Hassel, Kristian Stenøien, Hans K. Epp, Laura Schrøder-Nielsen, Audun Brochmann, Christian Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles 2015-11-24T13:17:55Z http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2367327 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115335 eng eng Public Library of Science PLoS ONE 2015, 10(1) urn:issn:1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2367327 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115335 cristin:1188193 10 PLoS ONE 1 Journal article Peer reviewed 2015 ftntnutrondheimi https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115335 2019-09-17T06:51:16Z Sympatric species are expected to minimize competition by partitioning resources, especially when these are limited. Herbivores inhabiting the High Arctic in winter are a prime example of a situation where food availability is anticipated to be low, and thus reduced diet overlap is expected. We present here the first assessment of diet overlap of high arctic lemmings during winter based on DNA metabarcoding of feces. In contrast to previous analyses based on microhistology, we found that the diets of both collared (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus) and brown lemmings (Lemmus trimucronatus) on Bylot Island were dominated by Salix while mosses, which were significantly consumed only by the brown lemming, were a relatively minor food item. The most abundant plant taxon, Cassiope tetragona, which alone composes more than 50% of the available plant biomass, was not detected in feces and can thus be considered to be non-food. Most plant taxa that were identified as food items were consumed in proportion to their availability and none were clearly selected for. The resulting high diet overlap, together with a lack of habitat segregation, indicates a high potential for resource competition between the two lemming species. However, Salix is abundant in the winter habitats of lemmings on Bylot Island and the non-Salix portion of the diets differed between the two species. Also, lemming grazing impact on vegetation during winter in the study area is negligible. Hence, it seems likely that the high potential for resource competition predicted between these two species did not translate into actual competition. This illustrates that even in environments with low primary productivity food resources do not necessarily generate strong competition among herbivores. © 2015 Soininen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Bylot Island Cassiope tetragona Dicrostonyx groenlandicus Lemmus trimucronatus NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Arctic Bylot Island PLOS ONE 10 1 e0115335 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftntnutrondheimi |
language |
English |
description |
Sympatric species are expected to minimize competition by partitioning resources, especially when these are limited. Herbivores inhabiting the High Arctic in winter are a prime example of a situation where food availability is anticipated to be low, and thus reduced diet overlap is expected. We present here the first assessment of diet overlap of high arctic lemmings during winter based on DNA metabarcoding of feces. In contrast to previous analyses based on microhistology, we found that the diets of both collared (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus) and brown lemmings (Lemmus trimucronatus) on Bylot Island were dominated by Salix while mosses, which were significantly consumed only by the brown lemming, were a relatively minor food item. The most abundant plant taxon, Cassiope tetragona, which alone composes more than 50% of the available plant biomass, was not detected in feces and can thus be considered to be non-food. Most plant taxa that were identified as food items were consumed in proportion to their availability and none were clearly selected for. The resulting high diet overlap, together with a lack of habitat segregation, indicates a high potential for resource competition between the two lemming species. However, Salix is abundant in the winter habitats of lemmings on Bylot Island and the non-Salix portion of the diets differed between the two species. Also, lemming grazing impact on vegetation during winter in the study area is negligible. Hence, it seems likely that the high potential for resource competition predicted between these two species did not translate into actual competition. This illustrates that even in environments with low primary productivity food resources do not necessarily generate strong competition among herbivores. © 2015 Soininen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Soininen, Eeva M Gauthier, Gilles Bilodeau, Frederic Berteaux, Dominique Gielly, Ludovic Taberlet, Pierre Gussarova, Galina Bellemain, Eva Hassel, Kristian Stenøien, Hans K. Epp, Laura Schrøder-Nielsen, Audun Brochmann, Christian Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles |
spellingShingle |
Soininen, Eeva M Gauthier, Gilles Bilodeau, Frederic Berteaux, Dominique Gielly, Ludovic Taberlet, Pierre Gussarova, Galina Bellemain, Eva Hassel, Kristian Stenøien, Hans K. Epp, Laura Schrøder-Nielsen, Audun Brochmann, Christian Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
author_facet |
Soininen, Eeva M Gauthier, Gilles Bilodeau, Frederic Berteaux, Dominique Gielly, Ludovic Taberlet, Pierre Gussarova, Galina Bellemain, Eva Hassel, Kristian Stenøien, Hans K. Epp, Laura Schrøder-Nielsen, Audun Brochmann, Christian Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles |
author_sort |
Soininen, Eeva M |
title |
Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
title_short |
Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
title_full |
Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
title_fullStr |
Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
title_full_unstemmed |
Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding |
title_sort |
highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by dna metabarcoding |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2367327 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115335 |
geographic |
Arctic Bylot Island |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Bylot Island |
genre |
Arctic Bylot Island Cassiope tetragona Dicrostonyx groenlandicus Lemmus trimucronatus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Bylot Island Cassiope tetragona Dicrostonyx groenlandicus Lemmus trimucronatus |
op_source |
10 PLoS ONE 1 |
op_relation |
PLoS ONE 2015, 10(1) urn:issn:1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2367327 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115335 cristin:1188193 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115335 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
e0115335 |
_version_ |
1766333957419302912 |