Arthropod Energy & Nutrients
The lesser hairyfooted dunnart (<i>Sminthopsis youngsoni, Dasyuridae</i>) is a generalist marsupial insectivore in arid Australia, but consumes wolf spiders (<i>Lycosa spp., Lycosidae</i>) disproportionately often relative to their availability. Here, we tested whether lycosids have relatively high energy or nutrient contents compared to other invertebrates, and hence whether these aspects of food quality can explain selective predation of lycosids by <i>S.youngsoni</i>. Energy, lipid and protein composition of representatives of 10 arthropod families that are eaten by <i>S. youngsoni</i> in the Simpson Desert were ascertained using microbomb calorimetry, chloroform-methanol extraction and Dumas combustion. Differences between invertebrate groups were assessed using separate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and appropriate post-hoc tests. These analyses were performed using this data.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2016-04-16
- Date (Publication)
- 2018-03-27
- Date (Revision)
- 2024-05-12
- Edition
- 1
Identifier
Publisher
Author
University of Adelaide - Potter, Tamara ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
Co-author
Western Sydney University - Stannard, Hayley ()
Bourke Street, Richmond, 2753, New South Wales, Australia
Richmond
New South Wales
2753
Australia
Co-author
University of Sydney - Greenville, Aaron ()
City Road, Camperdown, New South Wales, 2050, Australia
Camperdown
New South Wales
2050
Australia
Co-author
University of Sydney - Dickman, Chris (Professor in Terrestrial Ecology)
City Road, Camperdown, New South Wales, 2050, Australia
Camperdown
New South Wales
2050
Australia
- Website
- https://www.tern.org.au/
- Purpose
- The lesser hairyfooted dunnart (<i>Sminthopsis youngsoni</i>) is a common generalist insectivore in arid Australia that consumes wolf spiders (<i>Lycosa spp.</i>) disproportionately often relative to their availability. This study aimed to uncover the underlying mechanisms that drive this observed pattern of selective predation.
- Credit
- We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
- Status
- Completed
Point of contact
University of Adelaide - Potter, Tamara ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite Road
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
- Topic category
-
- Biota
Extent
- Description
- The study was undertaken around Main Camp site on Ethabuka Reserve, north-western Simpson Desert, Queensland. IBRA region: Simpson Desert (Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields)
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Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2016-04-16 2017-10-30
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
- GCMD Science Keywords
- ANZSRC Fields of Research
- TERN Parameter Vocabulary
- QUDT Units of Measure
- GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
- GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
- Australian Faunal Directory
- Keywords (Discipline)
-
- Arid ecology
- Behavioural Ecology
- Molecular Ecology
- Predator-Prey Interactions
Resource constraints
- Use limitation
- The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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- 88x31.png
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- CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
- File type
- png
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- TERN services are provided on an "as-is" and "as available" basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure. <br />Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN. <br /><br />Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting
- Other constraints
- Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}.
- Other constraints
- (C)2018 University of Sydney. Rights owned by University of Sydney.
Resource constraints
- Classification
- Unclassified
Distribution Information
Distribution Information
Distribution Information
Distribution Information
Distributor
Distributor
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd, Indooroopilly, QLD, Australia, 4068
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
- Distribution format
-
- OnLine resource
- ro-crate-metadata.json
Resource lineage
- Statement
- Determining energy and nutrient content of arthropods : [1] Collection of invertebrates. Study specimens were collected at Main Camp, Ethabuka Reserve in the north-eastern Simpson Desert, Queensland during five field trips in April, July and October 2016, and May and October 2017. Specimens from several arthropod Orders Araneae (including Lycosidae), Blattodea, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, and Scorpiones were collected from the Main Camp site for compositional analysis. Only arthropods known to be eaten by dunnarts were sampled. Arthropods were live-captured in vertebrate pitfall traps set on 16 permanent trapping grids, or through opportunistic diurnal searches to capture grasshoppers and katydids (Caelifera and Tettigoniidae, respectively), using a hat as a net. Hand-sampling was also undertaken over several nights covering an area of ~3 ha around Main Camp, using a spotlight (Fenix TK35) to locate eyeshine, and capture nocturnal arthropods such as arachnids (Lycosidae, Miturgidae). Captured arthropods were immediately placed into individual plastic vials or snap-lock bags to minimise water loss. [2] Preparation for energy and nutrient analyses Given the absence of any detailed identification key for Simpson Desert arthropods, collected specimens were identified to Order or Family (Coleoptera and Araneae). As lycosids were the focus of the study, two distinct morphospecies were also identified based on size (leg-span) and colouration. At the University of Sydney specimens were weighed to an accuracy of 0.0001 g before being dried for 72 h in an oven set to 60 C. Following this, they were weighed a final time before being ground into a powder using a mortar and pestle to get samples as homogeneous as possible. [3] Determining energy content A Phillipson Oxygen Microbomb Calorimeter was used to determine energy content of arthropods. Calorimetric assays require pellets weighing 0.01-0.02 g, so ~0.015 g (mean SE; 0.016 0.0003 g) of dried sample was combusted in 100 % oxygen. This process was repeated twice per sample and averaged for increased accuracy. A benzoic ash standard was used to calibrate the calorimeter every 10th sample and, after combustion, pellets were re-weighed to obtain the ash content and the known energy density of benzoic acid (i.e., 26.393 kJ g-1), was used to calculate the energy content of each arthropod sample in kJ per gram. [4] Nutrient content Total lipids were extracted using a chloroform-methanol-water (1:1:1, by volume) mixture. In summary, this method involved homogenising the tissue in the chloroform-methanol-water mixture before centrifuging and separating the resulting pellet. This process was repeated a second time and the lower chloroform phase was left to evaporate over 24-72 h before being re-weighed. Total lipid content was calculated gravimetrically as the difference in mass before and after the extraction method was applied. This process was repeated three times for each sample, and these triplicates were averaged to obtain a single value per sample.Total arthropod protein content was ascertained via the Dumas combustion technique using a LECO FP628 machine. Samples weighing 0.2 g were placed in the analyser and combusted to produce carcass nitrogen content. Crude protein was then calculated by multiplying the nitrogen value by a standard factor of 6.25.
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Reference System Information
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG/EPSG:3577
- Reference system type
- Geodetic Geographic 2D
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/face0e63-bff0-4fb9-b58a-96395926a745
- Title
- TERN GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
- Title
- Direct observations of foraging wolf spiders and dunnarts
Identifier
- Codespace
- https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/
- Description
- Parent Metadata Record
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/face0e63-bff0-4fb9-b58a-96395926a745
Point-of-truth metadata URL
- Date info (Creation)
- 2022-11-02T00:00:00
- Date info (Revision)
- 2024-05-12T00:00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
- Edition
- 1
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
- Title
- Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
- Date (published)
- 2021
- Edition
- 1.0
Identifier
Overviews
Spatial extent
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