Eric joined the lab in Fall 2014 to pursue his M.S. He’s developing a fascinating project that will ask how Wolbachia, a widespread endosymbiotic bacterium, is distributed within aquatic insects. He will then ask how infection by Wolbachia might alter the ability for insects to complete metamorphosis, a key process in linking aquatic-terrestrial food webs.
Habitat selection paper published in Ecology and Evolution
We tested whether egg-laying female insects could detect differences in predator community composition. Because some predators are more lethal than others, the ability to differentiate predator risk when laying eggs can have large fitness consequences. To test this, we allowed insects to oviposit in tanks that contained a native dragonfly (Ophiogomphus sp.) or a non-native trout brown trout (Salmo trutta). Predators were housed in isolated outdoor tanks either alone (single species) or combined (both species together). Predators were also caged to avoid direct consumption during colonization.
Surprisingly, insect colonization (number of larval insects after 21 days) did not depend on whether predators were present or not, regardless of community composition. However, follow-up consumption trials suggested that laying eggs in predator pools had clear negative consequences for larvae, particularly in trout pools, which reduced larval survival by ~47%. Thus, egg-laying insects either did not (or could not) detect differences in larval habitat quality.
Second metamorphosis paper accepted to ES&T! UPDATED
We’re on a roll with metamorphosis at ES&T. Johanna Kraus, a Mendenhall Fellow at the USGS, led the way on this very important paper. It shows differential contaminant loss as insects metamorphose from larvae to adult. Some contaminants are lost, while others are retained. Further, some stable isotope tracers, like N15, also change during metamorphosis. The results have broad application to contaminant transfer in food webs, and the interpretation of stable isotope studies.
UPDATES:
This paper was chosen as an “Editor’s Choice” by the American Chemical Society.
USGS Press Release
Metamorphosis paper 1 accepted to ES&T
This paper shows that metal concentrations that are non-lethal for mayfly larvae can become lethal when those larvae undergo metamorphosis to become winged adults. This points to an intriguing mechanism that may explain field patterns in which insect emergence is a more sensitive indicator of stream pollution than larval densities (Schmidt et al. 2013). In short, metamorphosis is a stressful event, and when combined with other stressors, metamorphosis can magnify their effects. The result is a disconnect between responses in the water (larvae) and responses in the air (emerged adults).
Northern leatherside chub paper accepted in Ecology of Freshwater Fish
Last week brought great news that our work on the food webs of northern leatherside chub was accepted to Ecology of Freshwater Fish. This study documents a shift in trophic position of common fishes in streams where NLC is absent. The shift is independent of habitat variation, meaning the food webs at these sites may be altered. This has exciting potential, as it may mean more than just habitat restoration is required to protect species of conservation need. I’ll post a longer write-up when it goes to press… Wesner, JS, and MC Belk. Accepted. Variation in the trophic position of common stream fishes and its relationship to the presence of a rare fish, northern leatherside chub (Lepidomeda copei). Ecology of Freshwater Fish.
We got our first grant!
An internal grant from USD will help to establish “Model systems to understand threats to freshwater ecosystems.” That is – we can now hire several undergraduate students and buy equipment to help build 1) a large outdoor artificial stream system, and 2) an indoor culture of the model mayfly Centroptilum triangulifer.
Welcome to Jerry Warmbold!
Jerry will start his M.S. in the Wesner lab in January 2014. He’s interested in fisheries and fish ecology. His project will answer questions related to the influence of fish species loss on linked aquatic-terrestiral ecosystems.
New paper in Freshwater Science
Direct predation on developing insects undoubtedly reduces the number of emergers, right? In this paper, the answer is maybe. We blocked off 10 entire pools of a small stream in Oklahoma, and created a 13X gradient of fish density. After 44 days, there was a clear negative relationship between fish density and benthic insect density, evidence that fish predation reduced benthic insect density. However, this did not translate into a reduction in emergence. The reason may lie in a lag effect between measured benthic standing crop, and subsequent emergence. Unfortunately, the fish effect was detected only in the last week of the experiment, and it’s likely that the remaining insects were not developed enough to emerge immediately.
But experiments always have to end, especially when you have to return to campus to teach. There is, however, some evidence of a lag effect – benthic standing crop before the experiment predicted emergence at the end of the experiment. In other words, had we waited a few weeks, the story may have been different, and emergence may have reflected fish density, revealing a predation effect.
New Paper in Ecology
Wesner, JS, EJ Billman, and MC Belk. 2012. Multiple predators indirectly alter community assembly across ecological boundaries. Ecology 93: 1674-1682. (see Publications for a .pdf).
Choosing where to lay eggs is critical to an organism’s fitness. Make the wrong choice, and your offspring are toast. It’s no surprise, then, that variation in habitat quality can often lead to variation in colonization, which is a key process during community assembly. Quality is defined in various ways, but one of the most obvious is the presence of predators, and organisms will often avoid colonizing habitats with predators when given the choice. But two features may complicate this choice, 1) predator diversity, and 2) the location of predator-free habitats in the landscape.
We measured insect colonization of aquatic mesocosms that contained predatory trout, dragonflies, or both. In addition, we varied the position of predator-free controls; some were adjacent to mesocosms with predators, while others were isolated. Based on previous research, we expected colonization in the adjacent controls to be intermediate between colonization in the predator treatments and isolated controls. We also expected colonization in the treatment with two predator species to be lower than colonization in treatments with single species.
Surprisingly, rather than showing intermediate preferences, we found that egg-laying insects (mostly chironomids) did not distinguish between treatments with single predator species, multiple predator species, or adjacent controls. They avoided all of these in favor of isolated predator-free mesocosms. This occurred despite the fact that adjacent and isolated predator-free controls were identical. Thus, colonization did not vary solely as a result of intrinsic habitat quality, but also as a result of the quality of adjacent habitats. This means that habitats that might appear identical to us based on intrinsic sampling may be perceived differently by organisms that colonize them. If these response scale-up, our results have consequences for traditional habitat models, as well as the design of conservation reserves.
New Paper in Freshwater Biology
For most aquatic insects, emergence to adulthood means two things: sex and death. As a result, emergence is often synchronous (sex requires other individuals, of course), resulting in mating swarms. These swarms also make good meals for terrestrial predators, subsidizing their diet. More food can feed more predators, so streams that produce more emerging insects also tend to support more birds, spiders, lizards, etc. From a bottom-up perspective, the importance of this subsidy is clear. However, not all insects are limited to sex and death. Some, like dragonflies, feed as adults, meaning they’re both prey (bottom-up) and consumers (top-down) in terrestrial food webs, with potentially important consequences.
Dragonflies are also more diverse and abundant in warm climates. In contrast, stoneflies, some of which are predators in the stream but never as adults, are more abundant in cold climates. This means that predation by adult aquatic insects may vary along a temperature gradient. In this paper, I asked how a latitudinal changes in average stream water temperature might affect both the magnitude and trophic structure (proportion of predators) of insects emerging from streams. I used published benthic insect datasets (i.e. larval stream datasets) as a proxy for emergence, because emergence collections are relatively rare. Collections ranged from Alaska to Brazil, spanning average mean stream temperature from 4 to 25 degrees Celsius.
The trophic structure, but not the magnitude, of potential emerging insects varied across the temperature gradient. Warm streams had proportionally more adult predators than cold streams (range: 0-12% by abundance, and 0-86% by biomass), but not necessarily more overall prey. Thus, the “bottom-up” potential of emerging subsidies was consistent, while the “top-down” potential varied widely. I argue that this top-down potential should be considered more widely in studies of aquatic-terrestrial linkages, particularly in warm climates.
