Silica particles with encapsulated DNA as trophic tracers
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Date
2015-03
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Ecological networks such as food webs are extremely complex and can provide important information about the robustness and productivity of an ecosystem. In most cases, it is not feasible to observe trophic interactions between predators and prey directly and with the available methods, it is difficult to quantify the connections between them. Here, we show that submicron‐sized silica particles (100–150 nm) with encapsulated DNA (SPED) enable accurate food and organism labelling and quantification of specific animal‐to‐animal transfer over more than one trophic level. We found that SPED were readily transferable and quantifiable from the bottom to the top of a two‐level food chain of arthropods. SPED were taken up in the gut system and remained persistent in an animal over several days. When uniquely labelled SPED were applied at predefined ratios, we found that information about their relative abundance was reliably conserved after trophic level transfer and over time. SPED were also applied to investigate the flower preference of fly pollinators and proved to be a fast and accurate analysis method. SPED combine attributes of DNA barcoding and stable isotope analysis such as unique labelling, quantification via real‐time PCR and exact backtracking to the tracer source. This improves and simplifies the analysis and monitoring of ecological networks.
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Publication status
published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
15 (2)
Pages / Article No.
231 - 241
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
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Edition / version
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Software
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
Food webs; Particle tracer; Predator-prey interaction; Species interactions
Organisational unit
03673 - Stark, Wendelin J. / Stark, Wendelin J.
08826 - Grass, Robert (Tit.-Prof.)
Notes
Received 17 February 2014, Revision received 24 June 2014, Accepted 25 June 2014, Article first published online 21 July 2014.