Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:06:32.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trophic relationships among terrestrial molluscs in a Hawaiian rain forest: analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2011

Wallace M. Meyer III  and
Norine W. Yeung
Wallace M. Meyer III*
Affiliation:
Center for Conservation Research and Training, Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii, 3050 Maile Way, Gilmore 408, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
Norine W. Yeung
Affiliation:
Center for Conservation Research and Training, Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii, 3050 Maile Way, Gilmore 408, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Current address: Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, 1140 E. South Campus Dr., Forbes 410, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. Email: wmm@email.arizona.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Soil and adjacent leaf-litter environments support a diverse decomposer fauna. This has led to what is known as ‘the enigma of the soil fauna’, or the question of how it is possible for such large numbers of species to coexist without obvious biotic mechanisms, such as competitive exclusion, limiting coexistence (Anderson 1975). Dietary specialization or effective partitioning of food resources could be a mechanism to avoid niche overlap among sympatric soil/litter species (Chahartaghi et al. 2005, Jennings & Barkham 1975). However, unravelling the complexities of trophic relationships can be difficult, especially in soil/leaf-litter habitats where both consumers and prey are small, diverse and often unidentifiable (Scheu & Falca 2000). As such, the trophic relationships among species in these habitats typically remain unresolved.

Keywords

coexistencefeeding guildsHawaiiintroducedinvasivesnailsslugstrophic structure
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , July 2011 , pp. 441 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ANDERSON, J. M. 1975. The enigma of soil animal species diversity. Pp. 51–58 in Vanek, J. (ed.). Progress in soil zoology. Prague Academia, Prague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BARRADA, M., IGLESIAS, J. & CASTILLEJO, J. 2004. Utilization of weeds and crop plants by the pest slug, Deroceras reticulatum (Muller, 1774). Biological Agriculture and Horticulture 22:185–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHAHARTAGHI, M., LANGEL, R., SCHEU, S. & RUESS, L. 2005. Feeding guilds in Collembola based on nitrogen stable isotope ratios. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 37:1718–1725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COOK, A. & RADFORD, D. J. 1988. The comparative ecology of four sympatric limacid slug species in Northern Ireland UK. Malacologia 28:131–146.Google Scholar
COWIE, R. H. 2001. Invertebrate invasions on Pacific islands and the replacement of unique native faunas: a synthesis of land and freshwater snails. Biological Invasions 3:119–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COWIE, R. H., EVENHUIS, N. L. & CHRISTENSEN, C. C. 1995. Catalog of the native land and freshwater molluscs of the Hawaiian Islands. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. 248 pp.Google Scholar
COWIE, R. H., HAYES, K. A., TRAN, C. T. & MEYER, W. M. 2008. The horticultural industry as a vector of alien snails and slugs: widespread invasions in Hawaii. International Journal of Pest Management 54:267–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EGGERS, T. & JONES, T. H. 2000. You are what you eat . . . or are you? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15:265–266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
GREGORICH, E. G., LIANG, B. C., DRURY, C. F., MACKENZIE, A. F. & McGILL, W. B. 2000. Elucidation of the source and turnover of water soluble and microbial biomass carbon in agricultural soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 24:581–587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HÖGBERG, P., HÖGBERG, M. N., QUIST, M. E., ECKBLAD, A. & NÄSHOLM, T. 1999. Nitrogen isotope fractionation during nitrogen uptake by ectomycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal Pinus sylvestris. New Phytologist 142:569–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JENNINGS, T. J. & BARKHAM, J. P. 1975. Food of slugs in mixed deciduous woodland in Norfolk, England. Oikos 26:211–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KAEHLER, S. & PAKHOMOV, E. A. 2001. Effects of storage and preservation on the δ13C and δ15N signatures of selected marine organisms. Marine Ecology Progress Series 219:299–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARTIN, A., BALESDENT, J. & MARIOTTI, A. 1992. Earthworm diet related to soil organic matter dynamics through 13C measurements. Oecologia 91:23–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MEYER, W. M. 2009. Status and ecological importance of rainforest land snails on the island of Hawaii. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, 156 pp.Google Scholar
MEYER, W. M. & COWIE, R. H. 2010a. Invasive temperate species are a threat to tropical island biodiversity. Biotropica 42:732–738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MEYER, W. M. & COWIE, R. H. 2010b. Feeding preferences of two predatory snails introduced to Hawaii and their conservation implications. Malacologia 53:135–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OSTROM, P. H., COLUNGA-GARCIA, M. & GAGE, S. H. 1997. Establishing pathways of energy flow for insect predators using stable isotope ratios: field and laboratory evidence. Oecologia 109:108–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PONSARD, S. & ARDITI, R. 2000. What can stable isotopes (d15N and d13C) tell about the food web of soil macroinvertebrates? Ecology 81:852–864.Google Scholar
POST, D. M. 2002. Using stable isotopes to estimate trophic position: models, methods, and assumptions. Ecology 83:703–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHEU, S. & FALCA, M. 2000. The soil food web of two beech forests (Fagus sylvatica) of contrasting humus type: stable isotope analysis of a macro- and mesofauna-dominated community. Oecologia 123:285–296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SCHMIDT, O., CURRY, J. P., DYCKMANS, J., ROTA, E. & SCRIMGEOUR, C. M. 2004. Dual stable isotope analysis (δ13C and δ15N) of soil invertebrates and their food resources. Pedobiologia 48:171–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar