TY - JOUR
T1 - Ecological stoichiometry of the black widow spider and its prey from desert, urban and laboratory populations
AU - Trubl, Patricia
AU - Johnson, James
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Lindsay Miles, Theresa Gburek and all the undergraduates in the Johnson lab that assisted with data collection. Additionally, we would like to thank Thomas Colella, Cathy Kochert, Roy Erickson, and Rahail Abou Saleh in the Goldwater Environmental Laboratory at Arizona State University for their assistance with analysis of C: N, N: P, and C: P for all of the arthropod samples. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. DEB-0423704 and BCS-1026865, Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER).
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Lindsay Miles, Theresa Gburek and all the undergraduates in the Johnson lab that assisted with data collection. Additionally, we would like to thank Thomas Colella, Cathy Kochert, Roy Erickson, and Rahail Abou Saleh in the Goldwater Environmental Laboratory at Arizona State University for their assistance with analysis of C: N, N: P, and C: P for all of the arthropod samples. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. DEB-0423704 and BCS-1026865 , Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - Ecological stoichiometry (ES) offers a framework to identify the mechanisms that allow pest species to thrive following human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). Specifically, ES links the biochemical composition of an organism to their growth and reproduction, which influences population growth and ecosystem dynamics. We used ES to quantify the nutrient composition (C: N, C: P, and N: P) of the western black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus) and its prey (from desert and urban) and laboratory populations. Urban field spider and cricket subpopulations exhibited spatial variation in their C: N ratios. Urban field spider C: N, C: P, and N: P ratios were significantly different from urban crickets, but in the laboratory population, spiders and cricket C: N, C: P, and N: P ratios did not vary. Relative to urban spiders, desert spiders had lower C: P and N: P, but C: N did not differ. In the laboratory population, spiders had higher C: N, C: P, N: P ratios than field-caught spiders. Moreover, cannibalism by laboratory-reared spiders lowered C: P and N: P ratios, but not C: N ratios. We suggest such intraspecific variation may be one mechanism that allows urban pests to thrive following HIREC.
AB - Ecological stoichiometry (ES) offers a framework to identify the mechanisms that allow pest species to thrive following human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). Specifically, ES links the biochemical composition of an organism to their growth and reproduction, which influences population growth and ecosystem dynamics. We used ES to quantify the nutrient composition (C: N, C: P, and N: P) of the western black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus) and its prey (from desert and urban) and laboratory populations. Urban field spider and cricket subpopulations exhibited spatial variation in their C: N ratios. Urban field spider C: N, C: P, and N: P ratios were significantly different from urban crickets, but in the laboratory population, spiders and cricket C: N, C: P, and N: P ratios did not vary. Relative to urban spiders, desert spiders had lower C: P and N: P, but C: N did not differ. In the laboratory population, spiders had higher C: N, C: P, N: P ratios than field-caught spiders. Moreover, cannibalism by laboratory-reared spiders lowered C: P and N: P ratios, but not C: N ratios. We suggest such intraspecific variation may be one mechanism that allows urban pests to thrive following HIREC.
KW - Carbon
KW - Nitrogen
KW - Phosphorus
KW - Spatial variation
KW - Urbanization
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2018.12.002
DO - 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2018.12.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85060337297
SN - 0140-1963
VL - 163
SP - 18
EP - 25
JO - Journal of Arid Environments
JF - Journal of Arid Environments
ER -