Can I read Dietary niche overlap and resource partitioning among six steppe passerines of Central Spain using DNA metabarcoding on EtoBox?

Dietary niche overlap and resource partitioning among six steppe passerines of Central Spain using DNA metabarcoding by Julia Zurdo; Adrián Barrero; Luís P. da Silva; Daniel Bustillo‐de la Rosa; Julia Gómez‐Catasús; Manuel B. Morales; Juan Traba; Vanessa A. Mata is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Dietary niche overlap and resource partitioning among six steppe passerines of Central Spain using DNA metabarcoding about?

Trophic niche partitioning is a mechanism that facilitates the coexistence of ecologically similar species by sharing their resource use. However, detailed information of the trophic niche in insectivorous birds is usually limited by the lack of accurate identification of consumed food resources. The use of DNA metabarcoding has proved useful for molecular identification of the taxa present in bird faecal samples. Here, we used this molecular technique to study the diets of six steppe passerine species distributed in two Special Protection Areas in central Spain, and to characterize the dietary niche overlap and the prey composition differences between bird species. In total, we distinguished 112 diet items, covering 39 arthropod families of 13 orders. Although significant dietary differences existed in prey species composition, our results indicated a 74% overlap in steppe bird dietary niche, mostly due to high consumption of abundant arthropod prey such as beetles, grasshoppers and spiders in the breeding season by all bird species. The lowest overlap was found for the dietary niches of the Greater Short-toed Lark Calandrella brachydactyla and Dupont's Lark Chersophilus duponti,

Who reads Dietary niche overlap and resource partitioning among six steppe passerines of Central Spain using DNA metabarcoding?

Author

Julia Zurdo; Adrián Barrero; Luís P. da Silva; Daniel Bustillo‐de la Rosa; Julia Gómez‐Catasús; Manuel B. Morales; Juan Traba; Vanessa A. Mata

Publisher

Wiley

Published

2023

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)