Maximillian PTG Tercel

Cardiff University | CU · Organisms and Environment Research Division

1. Generalist invertebrate predators are sensitive to weather conditions, but the relationship between their trophic interactions and weather is poorly understood. This study investigates how weather affects the identity and frequency of spider trophic interactions as mediated by prey community structure, web characteristics and density-independent...

Dietary metabarcoding has vastly improved our ability to analyse the diets of animals, but it is hampered by a plethora of technical limitations including potentially reduced data output due to the disproportionate amplification of the DNA of the focal predator, here termed ‘the predator problem’. We review the various methods commonly used to over...

In their article, Littleford-Colquhoun et al. (2022) advise against using arbitrary relative read abundance (RRA) thresholds (i.e., minimum sequence copy thresholds) for removing low-abundance sequences since they can increase false negative rates in dietary DNA metabarcoding data sets. The main criticisms presented against these widespread methods...

Nutrients are a critical driver of species interactions (e.g., plant-herbivore, predator-prey and host-parasite) but are not yet integrated into network ecology analyses. Ecological concepts like nutrient-specific foraging and nutrient-dependent functional responses could provide a mechanistic context for complex ecological interactions. These conc...

Dietary metabarcoding has vastly improved our ability to analyse the diets of animals, but it is hampered by a plethora of technical limitations including potentially reduced data output due to the disproportionate amplification of the DNA of the focal predator, here termed ‘the predator problem’. We review the various methods commonly used to over...

Nutrient-specific foraging is the ecological theory that generalist consumers select food resources based on their nutritional content. While laboratory experiments support this, it has not yet been demonstrated in invertebrate predators in the field. We combined dietary metabarcoding with prey abundance and macronutrient content data to analyze nu...

Introduced species can exert disproportionately negative effects on island ecosystems , but their potential role as food for native consumers is poorly studied. Telfair's skinks are endemic omnivores living on Round Island, Mauritius, a globally significant site of biodiversity conservation. We aimed to determine the dietary diversity and key troph...

The construction of increasingly detailed species-interaction networks is extending the potential applications of network ecology, providing an opportunity to understand complex eco-evolutionary interactions, ecosystem service provision and the impacts of environmental change on ecosystem functioning. Dietary metabarcoding is a rapidly growing tool...

Spiders are among the dominant invertebrate predators in agricultural systems and are significant regulators of insect pests. The precise dynamics of biocontrol of pests in the field are, however, poorly understood. This study investigates how density-independent prey choice, taxonomy, life stage, sex, and web characteristics affect spider diet and...

Dietary analysis using DNA metabarcoding is a powerful tool that is increasingly being used to further our knowledge of trophic interactions in highly complex food webs but is not without limitations. Omnivores, the most generalist of consumers, pose unique challenges when using such methods. Here, we provide the rationale to understand the problem...

Macronutrients, comprising carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, underpin many ecological processes, but their quantification in ecological studies is often inaccurate and laborious, requiring large investments of time and bulk samples, which make individual‐level studies impossible. This study presents MEDI (Macronutrient Extraction and Determinatio...

See the ERBAP launch here: https://youtu.be/p0QNjaNUO2Q We currently find ourselves in the midst of both a climate and biodiversity emergency, requiring changes to the way the University operates in order to deliver healthy functioning ecosystems capable of supporting climate and well-being goals for future generations. In compliance with Cardiff...

1. Money spiders (Linyphiidae) are an important component of conservation biological control in cereal crops, but they rely on alternative prey when pests are not abundant, such as between cropping cycles. To optimally benefit from these generalist predators, prey choice dynamics must first be understood. 2. Money spiders and their locally availabl...

Wingbeat frequency in insects is an important variable in aerodynamic and energetic analyses of insect flight and often is studied on a family‐ or species‐level basis. Meta‐analyses of these studies report order‐level patterns suggesting that flight strategy is moderately well conserved phylogenetically. Studies incorporated into these meta‐analyse...