Molecular analyses reveal consistent food web structure with elevation in rainforest Drosophila - parasitoid communities

摘要: The analysis of interaction networks across spatial environmental gradients is a powerful approach to investigate the responses communities global change. Using combination DNA metabarcoding and traditional molecular methods we built bipartite Drosophila-parasitoid food webs from six Australian rainforest sites spanning 850 m in elevation 5° Celsius mean temperature. Our cost-effective hierarchical network reconstruction separated determination host frequencies detection quantification interactions. comprised 5-9 5-11 parasitoid species at each site, showed lower incidence parasitism high elevation. Despite considerable turnover relative abundance Drosophila species, contrary some previous results, did not detect significant changes fundamental metrics structure including nestedness specialisation with Advances community ecology depend on data methodological approaches. It therefore especially valuable develop model study systems for sets closely-interacting that are diverse enough be representative, yet still amenable field laboratory experiments.