Effective management and conservation of biodiversity requires understanding of predator-prey relationships to ensure the continued existence of both predator and prey populations. Gathering dietary data from predatory species, such as insectivorous bats, often presents logistical challenges, further exacerbated in biodiversity hot spots because prey items are highly speciose, yet their taxonomy is largely undescribed. We used high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and bioinformatic analyses to phylogenetically group DNA sequences into molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) to examine predator-prey dynamics of three sympatric insectivorous bat species in the biodiversity hotspot of south-western Australia. We could only assign between 4% and 20% of MOTUs to known genera or species, depending on the method used, underscoring the importance of examining dietary diversity irrespective of taxonomic knowledge in areas lacking a comprehensive genetic reference database. MOTU analysis confirmed that resource partitioning occurred, with dietary divergence positively related to the ecomorphological divergence of the three bat species. We predicted that bat species' diets would converge during times of high energetic requirements, that is, the maternity season for females and the mating season for males. There was an interactive effect of season on female, but not male, bat species' diets, although small sample sizes may have limited our findings. Contrary to our predictions, females of two ecomorphologically similar species showed dietary convergence during the mating season rather than the maternity season. HTS-based approaches can help elucidate complex predator-prey relationships in highly speciose regions, which should facilitate the conservation of biodiversity in genetically uncharacterized areas, such as biodiversity hotspots.

译文

:有效管理和保护生物多样性需要了解捕食者与猎物之间的关系,以确保捕食者和猎物种群的持续存在。从食虫类蝙蝠等捕食物种收集饮食数据通常会带来后勤方面的挑战,在生物多样性热点地区这种情况会进一步加剧,因为猎物种类特别多,但其分类法在很大程度上并未得到描述。我们使用高通量测序(HTS)和生物信息学分析将DNA序列系统发育地分类为分子操作分类单位(MOTUs),以检查澳大利亚西南部生物多样性热点中三种同伴食虫蝙蝠物种的捕食者-猎物动态。根据所使用的方法,我们只能将4%到20%的MOTU分配给已知的属或种,从而强调了在缺乏综合遗传参考数据库的地区中,不论分类学知识如何,都必须检查饮食多样性的重要性。 MOTU分析证实发生了资源分配,饮食差异与三种蝙蝠的生态形态差异正相关。我们预测蝙蝠物种的饮食会在高能量需求时收敛,即雌性的产期和雄性的交配季节。季节对雌性蝙蝠的饮食有交互作用,但对雄性蝙蝠的饮食没有影响,尽管小样本量可能限制了我们的发现。与我们的预测相反,两种在生态形态上相似的物种的雌性在交配季节而不是生育季节显示出饮食趋同。基于HTS的方法可以帮助阐明高特异性地区中复杂的捕食者与猎物之间的关系,这应有助于在遗传多样性不足的地区(例如生物多样性热点)保护生物多样性。

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