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. 2010 Oct 7;277(1696):3001-8.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.0465. Epub 2010 May 12.

Evidence for competition between carnivorous plants and spiders

Affiliations

Evidence for competition between carnivorous plants and spiders

David E Jennings et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Several studies have demonstrated that competition between disparate taxa can be important in determining community structure, yet surprisingly, to our knowledge, no quantitative studies have been conducted on competition between carnivorous plants and animals. To examine potential competition between these taxa, we studied dietary and microhabitat overlap between pink sundews (Drosera capillaris) and wolf spiders (Lycosidae) in the field, and conducted a laboratory experiment examining the effects of wolf spiders on sundew fitness. In the field, we found that sundews and spiders had a high dietary overlap with each other and with the available arthropod prey. Associations between sundews and spiders depended on spatial scale: both sundews and spiders were found more frequently in quadrats with more abundant prey, but within quadrats, spiders constructed larger webs and located them further away from sundews as the total sundew trapping area increased, presumably to reduce competition. Spiders also constructed larger webs when fewer prey were available. In the laboratory, our experiment revealed that spiders can significantly reduce sundew fitness. Our findings suggest that members of the plant and animal kingdoms can and do compete.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The relatedness of focal animal, fungal, plant and protist species from terrestrial and freshwater interspecific competition studies considered by Schoener (1983) and Gurevitch et al. (1992). Each level of classification indicates that all focal species from the study in question were within that classification (e.g. if two species were from different orders but within the same class, the study would be recorded under ‘Class’). We used the lowest level of classification possible for all interactions, and we did not double-count classifications for any studies.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The relative proportions of arthropods caught by D. capillaris, S. floridanus and from the environment (sticky traps).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Path analysis models using (a) distance of web to nearest sundew and (b) web area, as the response variable. None of the indirect effects were significant for the models and therefore they are not displayed. Shown are standardized coefficients, probability values for each path and R2 values for each submodel.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
(a) Effects of spider (presence or absence) and (b) food level (0, 12 or 48 crickets per week) on the number of stalks, flowers and seeds produced per sundew. There was no interaction between the spider and food treatments, so only main effects are shown. In (b), we provide best-fit lines, and asterisks represent the significance of the relationship between the food level (continuous predictor) and the response variable. Shown are means and standard errors; n = 8. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.005, ****p < 0.001. (a) Open boxes, spider absent; filled boxes, spider present. (b) Open circles, stalks; open squares, flowers; open triangles, log seeds.

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