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Clarifying the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem stability in the context of global environmental change is crucial for maintaining ecosystem functions and services. Asynchronous changes between trophic levels over time (i.e. trophic community asynchrony) are expected to increase trophic mismatch and alter trophic interactions, which may consequently alter ecosystem stability. However, previous studies have often highlighted the stabilising mechanism of population asynchrony within a single trophic level, while rarely examining the mechanism of trophic community asynchrony between consumers and their food resources. In this study, we analysed the effects of population asynchrony within and between trophic levels on community stability under the disturbances of climate warming, fishery decline and de-eutrophication, based on an 18-year monthly monitoring dataset of 137 phytoplankton and 91 zooplankton in a subtropical lake. Our results showed that species diversity promoted community stability mainly by increasing population asynchrony both for phytoplankton and zooplankton. Trophic community asynchrony had a significant negative effect on zooplankton community stability rather than that of phytoplankton, which supports the match-mismatch hypothesis that trophic mismatch has negative effects on consumers. Furthermore, the results of the structural equation models showed that warming and top-down effects may simultaneously alter community stability through population dynamics processes within and between trophic levels, whereas nutrients act on community stability mainly through the processes within trophic levels. Moreover, we found that rising water temperature decreased trophic community asynchrony, which may challenge the prevailing idea that climate warming increases the trophic mismatch between primary producers and consumers. Overall, our study provides the first evidence that population and trophic community asynchrony have contrasting effects on consumer community stability, which offers a valuable insight for addressing global environmental change.

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Nutrient enrichment and climate warming threaten freshwater systems. Metabolic theory and the paradox of enrichment predict that both stressors independently can lead to simpler food-webs having fewer nodes, shorter food-chains and lower connectance, but cancel each other's effects when simultaneously present. Yet, these theoretical predictions remain untested in complex natural systems. We inferred the food-web structure of 256 lakes and 373 streams from standardized fish community samplings in France. Contrary to theoretical predictions, we found that warming shortens fish food-chain length and that this effect was magnified in enriched streams and lakes. Additionally, lakes experiencing enrichment exhibit lower connectance in their fish food-webs. Our study suggests that warming and enrichment interact to magnify food-web simplification in nature, raising further concerns about the fate of freshwater systems as climate change effects will dramatically increase in the coming decades.

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Understanding the environmental and biological mechanisms shaping latitudinal patterns in microbial diversity is challenging in the field of ecology. Although multiple hypotheses have been proposed to explain these patterns, a consensus has rarely been reached. Here, we conducted a large-scale field survey and microcosm experiments to investigate how environmental heterogeneity and putative trophic interactions (exerted by protist-bacteria associations and T4-like virus-bacteria associations) affect soil bacterial communities along a latitudinal gradient. We found that the microbial latitudinal diversity was kingdom dependent, showing decreasing, clumped, and increasing trends in bacteria, protists, and T4-like viruses, respectively. Climatic and edaphic drivers played predominant roles in structuring the bacterial communities; the intensity of the climatic effect increased sharply from 30°N to 32°N, whereas the intensity of the edaphic effect remained stable. Biotic associations were also essential in shaping the bacterial communities, with protist-bacteria associations showing a quadratic distribution, whereas virus-bacteria associations were significant only at high latitudes. The microcosm experiments further revealed that the temperature component, which is affiliated with climate conditions, is the primary regulator of trophic associations along the latitudinal gradient. Overall, our study highlights a previously underestimated mechanism of how the putative biotic interactions influence bacterial communities and their response to environmental gradients.

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In oceans, the noise generated by human activities has reached phenomenal proportions, with considerable harmful effects on marine life. Measuring this impact to achieve a sustainable balance for highly vulnerable marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, is a critical environmental policy objective. Here, we demonstrate that anthropogenic noise alters the interactions of a coral reef fish with its environment and how this behavioural response to noise impairs foraging. In situ observations on the Moorea reef revealed that the damselfish Dascyllus emamo reacts to boat passage by moving closer to its coral bommie, considerably reducing the volume of water available to search for prey. Using boat noise playback experiments in microcosms, we studied D. emamo's behaviour and modeled its functional response (FR), which is the relationship between resource use and resource density, when feeding on juvenile shrimps. Similar to field observations, noise reduced D. emamo's spatial occupancy, accompanied by a lower FR, indicating a reduction in predation independent of prey density. Overall, noise-induced behavioural changes are likely to influence predator-prey interaction dynamics and ultimately the fitness of both protagonists. While there is an urgent need to assess the effect of anthropogenic noise on coral reefs, the ecological framework of the FR approach combined with behavioural metrics provides an essential tool for evaluating the cascading effects of noise on nested ecological interactions at the community level.

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Predator responses to warming can occur via phenotypic plasticity, evolutionary adaptation or a combination of both, changing their top-down effects on prey communities. However, we lack evidence of how warming-induced evolutionary changes in predators may influence natural food webs. Here, we ask whether wild fish subject to warming across multiple generations differ in their impacts on prey communities compared with their nearby conspecifics experiencing a natural thermal regime. We carried out a common garden mesocosm experiment with larval perch (Perca fluviatilis), originating from a heated or reference coastal environment, feeding on zooplankton communities under a gradient of experimental temperatures. Overall, in the presence of fish of heated origin, zooplankton abundance was higher and did not change with experimental warming, whereas in the presence of fish of unheated origin, it declined with experimental temperature. Responses in zooplankton taxonomic and size composition suggest that larvae of heated origin consume more large-sized taxa as the temperature increases. Our findings show that differences between fish populations, potentially representing adaptation to their long-term thermal environments, can affect the abundance, biomass, size and species composition of their prey communities. This suggests that rapid microevolution in predators to ongoing climate warming might have indirect cross-generational ecological consequences propagating through food webs.

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PREMISE: Legumes establish mutualistic interactions with pollinators and nitrogen (N)-fixing bacteria that are critical for plant reproduction and ecosystem functioning. However, we know little about how N-fixing bacteria and soil nutrient availability affect plant attractiveness to pollinators. METHODS: In a two-factorial greenhouse experiment to assess the impact of N-fixing bacteria and soil types on floral traits and attractiveness to pollinators in Chamaecrista latistipula (Fabaceae), plants were inoculated with N-fixing bacteria (NF+) or not (NF-) and grown in N-rich organic soil (+N organic soil) or N-poor sand soil (-N sand soil). We counted buds and flowers and measured plant size during the experiment. We also measured leaf, petal, and anther reflectance with a spectrophotometer and analyzed reflectance curves. Using the bee hexagon model, we estimated chromatic contrasts, a crucial visual cues for attracting bees that are nearby and more distant. RESULTS: NF+ plants in -N sand soil had a high floral display and color contrasts. On the other hand, NF- plants and/or plants in +N organic soil had severely reduced floral display and color contrasts, decreasing floral attractiveness to bee pollinators. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the N-fixing bacteria positively impact pollination, particularly when nutrients are limited. This study provides insights into the dynamics of plant-pollinator interactions and underscores the significant influence of root symbionts on key floral traits within tropical ecosystems. These results contribute to understanding the mechanisms governing mutualisms and their consequences for plant fitness and ecological dynamics.

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Trophic interaction modifications (TIM) are widespread in natural systems and occur when a third species indirectly alters the strength of a trophic interaction. Past studies have focused on documenting the existence and magnitude of TIMs; however, the underlying processes and long-term consequences remain elusive. To address this gap, we experimentally quantified the density-dependent effect of a third species on a predator's functional response. We conducted short-term experiments with ciliate communities composed of a predator, prey and non-consumable 'modifier' species. In both communities, increasing modifier density weakened the trophic interaction strength, due to a negative effect on the predator's space clearance rate. Simulated long-term dynamics indicate quantitative differences between models that account for TIMs or include only pairwise interactions. Our study demonstrates that TIMs are important to understand and predict community dynamics and highlights the need to move beyond focal species pairs to understand the consequences of species interactions in communities.

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Natural and anthropogenic pressures exert influence on ecosystem structure and function by affecting the physiology and behavior of organisms, as well as the trophic interactions within assemblages. Therefore, understanding how multiple stressors affect aquatic ecosystems can improve our ability to manage and protect these ecosystems and contribute to understanding fundamental ecological principles. Here, we conducted a mesocosm experiment to ascertain the individual and combined effects of multiple stressors on trophic interactions within species in freshwater ecosystems. Furthermore, we investigated how species respond to such changes by adapting their food resources. To mimic a realistic food web, we selected fish and shrimp as top predators, gastropods, zooplankton and zoobenthos as intermediate consumers, with producers (macrophytes, periphyton and phytoplankton) and detritus as basal resources. Twelve different treatments included a control, nutrient loading only, herbicide exposure only, and a combination of nutrient loading and herbicide exposure, each replicated under ambient temperature, constant warming and multiple heat waves to simulate environmental stressors. Our results demonstrated that antagonistic interactions between environmental stressors were widespread in trophic interactions, with a more pronounced and less intense impact observed for the high trophic level species. The responses of freshwater communities to environmental stressors are complex, involving direct effects on individual species as well as indirect effects through species interactions. Moreover, our results confirmed that the combinations of stressors, but not individual stressors, led to a shift to herbivory in top predators, indicating that multiple stressors can be more detrimental to organisms than individual stressors alone. These findings elucidate how changes in the resource utilization of species induced by environmental stressors can potentially influence species interactions and the structural dynamics of food webs in freshwater ecosystems.

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Tree diversity promotes predator abundance and diversity, but evidence linking these effects to increased predation pressure on herbivores remains limited. In addition, tree diversity effects on predators can vary temporally as a function of environmental variation, or due to contrasting responses by different predator types. In a multi-year study, we assessed temporal variation in tree diversity effects on bird community abundance, diversity, and predation rates as a whole and by functional group based on feeding guild (omnivores vs. insectivores) and migratory status (migrant vs. resident). To this end, we conducted bird point counts in tree monocultures and polycultures and assessed attacks on clay caterpillars four times over a 2-year period in a tree diversity experiment in Yucatan, Mexico. Tree diversity effects on the bird community varied across surveys, with positive effects on bird abundance and diversity in most but not all surveys. Tree diversity had stronger and more consistent effects on omnivorous and resident birds than on insectivorous and migratory species. Tree diversity effects on attack rates also varied temporally but patterns did not align with variation in bird abundance or diversity. Thus, while we found support for predicted increases in bird abundance, diversity, and predation pressure with tree diversity, these responses exhibited substantial variation over time and the former two were uncoupled from patterns of predation pressure, as well as contingent on bird functional traits. These results underscore the need for long-term studies measuring responses by different predator functional groups to better understand tree diversity effects on top-down control.

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Soil bacterial and fungal communities play key roles in the degradation of organic contaminants, and their structure and function are regulated by bottom-up and top-down factors. Microbial ecological effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and trophic interactions among protozoa and bacteria/fungi in PAH-polluted soils have yet to be determined. We investigated the trophic interactions and structure of the microbiome in PAH-contaminated wasteland and farmland soils. The results indicated that the total concentration of the 16 PAHs (∑PAHs) was significantly correlated with the Shannon index, NMDS1 and the relative abundances of bacteria, fungi and protozoa (e.g., Pseudofungi) in the microbiome. Structural equation modelling and linear fitting demonstrated cascading relationships among PAHs, protozoan and bacterial/fungal communities in terms of abundance and diversity. Notably, individual PAHs were significantly correlated with microbe-grazing protozoa at the genus level, and the abundances of these organisms were significantly correlated with those of PAH-degrading bacteria and fungi. Bipartite networks and linear fitting indicated that protozoa indirectly modulate PAH degradation by regulating PAH-degrading bacterial and fungal communities. Therefore, protozoa might be involved in regulating the microbial degradation of PAHs by predation in contaminated soil.

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The impoundment of rivers by dams has significantly modified sedimentation patterns and trophic structures. As a result, the algal-derived organic matter (OM), as opposed to terrestrial-derived OM, plays an increasingly important role along the river-reservoir gradient. This study utilized water-sediment microcosms to explore the impacts of allochthonous and autochthonous OM deposition on benthic nutrient dynamics mediated by microbial food webs. Our results revealed that OM addition led to increased fluxes of NH4+ and CO2, with the highest flux induced by cyanobacteria OM, followed by diatom and allochthonous OM. N2 release flux was promoted by allochthonous and diatom OM deposition but inhibited by cyanobacteria OM deposition. The amendment of autochthonous OM increased the activity of dehydrogenase and urease, while allochthonous OM with a higher C/N ratio enhanced the catalytic abilities of polyphenol oxidase and ß-glucosidase. Furthermore, OM deposition significantly reduced microbial community richness and diversity, except for eukaryotic richness, and induced pronounced changes in bacterial and eukaryotic community structures. Allochthonous OM deposition stimulated the utilization of bacteria and protozoan on native OM, resulting in a positive priming effect of 26.78 %. In contrast, diatom and cyanobacteria OM additions exerted negative priming effects of -44.53 % and -29.76 %, respectively. Bayesian stable isotope mixing models showed that diatom OM was primarily absorbed by protozoan and metazoan, while cyanobacteria OM was more easily decomposed by bacteria and transferred to higher trophic levels through microbial food webs. In addition, bacterial ammonification accounted for 74.5 % of NH4+ release in the allochthonous OM deposition treatment, whereas eukaryotic excretion contributed separately 83.3 % and 83.1 % to NH4+ release in the diatom and cyanobacteria OM addition treatments. These findings highlight the significance of accounting for the regulatory capacity of OM deposition when studying benthic metabolism within river-reservoir systems.

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Mast seeding is the episodic, massive production of plant seeds synchronized over large areas. The resulting superabundance of seeds represents a resource pulse that can profoundly affect animal populations across trophic levels. Following years of high seed production, the abundance of both seed consumers and their predators increase. Higher predator abundance leads to increased predation pressure across the trophic web, impacting nonseed consumers such as the wood warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix through increased nest predation after tree mast years. Over the past 30 years, the frequency of tree seed masts has increased, while wood warbler populations have declined in several regions of Europe. We hypothesized that increasing mast frequencies may have contributed to the observed population declines by creating suboptimal breeding conditions in years after masting. We measured reproductive output in four study areas in central Europe, which was between 0.61 and 1.24 fledglings lower in the years following masting than nonmasting. For each study area, we used matrix population models to predict population trends based on the estimated reproductive output and the local mast frequencies. We then compared the predicted with the observed population trends to assess if the frequency of mast years had contributed to the population dynamics. In Wielkopolska National Park (PL) and Hessen (DE), masting occurred on average only every 4 years and populations were stable or nearly so, whereas in Jura (CH) and Bialowieza National Park (PL), masting occurred every 2 and 2.5 years, respectively, and populations were declining. The simple matrix population models predicted the relative difference among local population trends over the past 10-20 years well, suggesting that the masting frequency may partly explain regional variation in population trends. Simulations suggest that further increases in mast frequency will lead to further declines in wood warbler populations. We show that changes in a natural process, such as mast seeding, may contribute to the decline in animal populations through cascading effects.

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Microbial food webs (MFW) play an indispensable role in marine pelagic ecosystem, yet their composition and response to abiotic variables were poorly documented in the oligotrophic tropical Western Pacific. During winter of 2015, we conducted a survey to examine key components of MFW, including Synechococcus, Prochlorococcus, picoeukaryotes, heterotrophic prokaryotes (HP), heterotrophic/pigmented nanoflagellates and ciliates, across water column from surface to 2000 m. Each MFW component exhibited unique vertical distribution pattern, with abundance ratio varying over six and three orders of magnitude across Pico/Microplankton (1.6 ± 1.0 × 106) and Nano/Microplankton (3.2 ± 2.8 × 103), respectively. Furthermore, HP was main component for MFW in the bathypelagic (>1000 m) zone. Multivariate biota-environment analysis demonstrated that environmental variables, particularly temperature, significantly impacted MFW composition, suggesting that bottom-up control (resource availability) dominated the water column. Our study provides benchmark information for future environmental dynamics forcing on MFW in the oligotrophic tropical seas.

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Mist nets are one of the most widely used techniques in the study of birds and bats worldwide. However, a number of risks are involved, including opportunistic predation. Given this potential cost, here we: (1) review the global literature to understand the factors that might contribute to predation risk for birds and bats captured in mist nets; (2) review existing guidelines for best practice use of mist nets; and (3) based on our reviews, recommend new guidelines for the use of mist nets to minimize the risk of opportunistic predation. Based on keyword in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and using Google Scholar, Scopus, SciElo, and Web of Science, we found 48 articles reporting opportunistic predation. In the included articles, 178 predation events, involving 52 predator and 84 prey species, were reported. In most of the reports, the mist nets were placed at ground level, the bats and birds were preyed on from the shelf closest to the ground, the mist-net checks occurred at intervals of 1 h or 30 min and the most common predators were arboreal and scansorial species (primates and marsupials). Despite the occurrences of predation in 13 countries, guidelines for best practice mist-net use were found in only three, despite extensive searches and contact with key people in each country. Based on the existing guidelines and our results, we recommend that mist nets be fixed with the lowest shelf at least 50 cm above ground level and be checked at 15-min intervals; when predators are observed near mist nets, the nets either be constantly observed, closed, or relocated; suppressed the vegetation around the mist nets; captured animals be removed from the mist nets as soon as possible, and more than one researcher/technician should be in the field at all times.

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Invasive plants from their native and introduced ranges differ in their interactions with herbivores but it is not known whether they also vary in their interactions with herbivore natural enemies. Here, we used olfactometer bioassays and cage experiments to investigate how foraging behaviors of 2 parasitoid and 1 hyperparasitoid species depended on plant population origin. Triadica sebifera (Euphorbiaceae) is native to China but invasive in the United States. In China, it is fed on by a specialist noctuid Gadirtha fusca (Lepidoptera: Nolidae), which hosts a parasitoid Apanteles sp. (Hymenoptera: Microgastinae) and hyperparasitoid (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae) plus a generalist aphid Toxoptera odinae (Homoptera: Aphidiidae) parasitized by Lysiphlebus confusus (Hymenoptera: Aphidiinae). Both parasitoids preferred plants infested by their host over herbivore-free plants in olfactometer bioassays. Apanteles sp. and Eurytomid wasps preferred G. fusca infested plants from China populations over those from US populations in olfactometer bioassays but L. confusus wasps did not discriminate between T. odinae infested plants from China vs. US populations. Similarly, G. fusca caterpillars on China population plants were more likely to be parasitized than ones on US population plants when they were in the same cage but odds of parasitism for T. odinae did not differ for those on China vs. US population plants. These results suggest that populations from the native and introduced ranges may differ in traits that impact higher trophic levels. This may have implications for successful control of invasive plants as biocontrol agents are introduced or herbivores begin to feed on them in their introduced ranges.

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Urbanization has dramatically altered Earth's landscapes and changed a multitude of environmental factors. This has resulted in intense land-use change, and adverse consequences such as the urban heat island effect (UHI), noise pollution, and artificial light at night (ALAN). However, there is a lack of research on the combined effects of these environmental factors on life-history traits and fitness, and on how these interactions shape food resources and drive patterns of species persistence. Here, we systematically reviewed the literature and created a comprehensive framework of the mechanistic pathways by which urbanization affects fitness and thus favors certain species. We found that urbanization-induced changes in urban vegetation, habitat quality, spring temperature, resource availability, acoustic environment, nighttime light, and species behaviors (e.g., laying, foraging, and communicating) influence breeding choices, optimal time windows that reduce phenological mismatch, and breeding success. Insectivorous and omnivorous species that are especially sensitive to temperature often experience advanced laying behaviors and smaller clutch sizes in urban areas. By contrast, some granivorous and omnivorous species experience little difference in clutch size and number of fledglings because urban areas make it easier to access anthropogenic food resources and to avoid predation. Furthermore, the interactive effect of land-use change and UHI on species could be synergistic in locations where habitat loss and fragmentation are greatest and when extreme-hot weather events take place in urban areas. However, in some instances, UHI may mitigate the impact of land-use changes at local scales and provide suitable breeding conditions by shifting the environment to be more favorable for species' thermal limits and by extending the time window in which food resources are available in urban areas. As a result, we determined five broad directions for further research to highlight that urbanization provides a great opportunity to study environmental filtering processes and population dynamics.

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The deep sea is amongst the most food-limited habitats on Earth, as only a small fraction (<4%) of the surface primary production is exported below 200 m water depth. Here, cold-water coral (CWC) reefs form oases of life: their biodiversity compares with tropical coral reefs, their biomass and metabolic activity exceed other deep-sea ecosystems by far. We critically assess the paradox of thriving CWC reefs in the food-limited deep sea, by reviewing the literature and open-access data on CWC habitats. This review shows firstly that CWCs typically occur in areas where the food supply is not constantly low, but undergoes pronounced temporal variation. High currents, downwelling and/or vertically migrating zooplankton temporally boost the export of surface organic matter to the seabed, creating 'feast' conditions, interspersed with 'famine' periods during the non-productive season. Secondly, CWCs, particularly the most common reef-builder Desmophyllum pertusum (formerly known as Lophelia pertusa), are well adapted to these fluctuations in food availability. Laboratory and in situ measurements revealed their dietary flexibility, tissue reserves, and temporal variation in growth and energy allocation. Thirdly, the high structural and functional diversity of CWC reefs increases resource retention: acting as giant filters and sustaining complex food webs with diverse recycling pathways, the reefs optimise resource gains over losses. Anthropogenic pressures, including climate change and ocean acidification, threaten this fragile equilibrium through decreased resource supply, increased energy costs, and dissolution of the calcium-carbonate reef framework. Based on this review, we suggest additional criteria to judge the health of CWC reefs and their chance to persist in the future.

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The loss of defence hypothesis posits that island colonizers experience a release from predation on the mainland and subsequently lose their defensive adaptations. However, while support for the hypothesis from direct defensive traits is abundant, far less is known about indirect defensive traits. Leaf domatia are cave-like structures produced on the underside of leaves that facilitate an indirect defensive interaction with predaceous and microbivorous mites. I tested the loss of defence hypothesis in six domatia-bearing taxa inhabiting New Zealand and its offshore islands. No support for the loss of defence hypothesis was found. Changes in domatia investment were instead associated with changes in leaf size-a trait that has been repeatedly observed to undergo rapid evolution on islands. Overall results suggest that not all types of defence are lost on islands.

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Trophic dynamics is one of the major regulators of fishery production in marine ecosystems, which is important for the implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management. Based on data collected form bottom trawl surveys in Haizhou Bay and adjacent waters during autumn of 2011 and 2018, Delta-GAMMs (Delta-generalized additive mixed models) were constructed to evaluate the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on the predation of five key prey species (including Leptochela gracilis, Alpheus japonicus, Loligo spp., Larimichthys polyactis, and Oratosquilla oratoria) in the Haizhou Bay. Percent frequency of occurrence and predation pressure index were used to identify their major predators. Variance inflation factor and full subsets regression were analyzed to quantify the degree of multicollinearity between these factors. The results showed that the occurrence frequency of keystone prey species in the stomach of predators ranged from 8.5% to 42.2%, and the weight percentage ranged from 4.2% to 40.9%. The average deviance explanation rate of the "binomial" model was 16.1%, and the average deviance explanation rate of the "positive" model was 23.8%. Body length of predator, predator population density, and sea bottom temperature were important factors influencing prey-predator trophic interactions. Predator length was the most important factor, with feeding probability and weight percentage of keystone prey species all increasing with body length of predator. Feeding probability and weight percentage of key prey species decreased with predator population density. The effects of environmental factors such as sea bottom temperature, depth of water, latitude, and sea bottom salinity showed different trends, depending on the prey-predator assemblage. This study showed that the Delta-GAMMs was an effective method to explore the trophic interactions between prey and predators in marine ecosystems, and could provide a theoretical basis for the conservation and sustainable use of fisheries resources.

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Prosopis laevigata (mesquite; Fabaceae) forms fertility islands in soils of semi-arid lands where microbial diversity concentrates in response to the accumulation of resources in the soil beneath individual plants, promoting organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. This phenomenon provides suitable conditions for the proliferation of key edaphic elements such as fungi and mites. Mite-fungal interactions are central for our understanding of nutrient cycling processes in resource-limited arid food webs; yet, no information is available about fertility islands in semi-arid lands. Thus, we aimed to determine in vitro fungal-based feeding preferences and molecular gut content of the oribatid mite species Zygoribatula cf. floridana and Scheloribates cf. laevigatus, which are abundant under the canopy of P. laevigata in an intertropical semi-arid zone in Central Mexico. Our results on the gut content analysis of these oribatid species resulted in the ITS-based identification of the following fungi: Aspergillus homomorphus, Beauveria bassiana, Filobasidium sp., Mortierella sp., Roussoella sp., Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Sclerotiniaceae sp. and Triparticalcar sp. Furthermore, under laboratory conditions both oribatid mite species exhibited feeding preferences on melanized fungi, such as Cladosporium spp., whereas A. homomorphus and Fusarium penzigi were avoided. Our findings indicated that the analyzed oribatid mite species have similar feeding preferences for melanized fungi, which might suggest resource partitioning and a degree of preference, explaining the coexistence of both oribatid species.

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