Special Issue on Species Interactions, Ecological Networks and Community Dynamics – Untangling the Entangled Bank Using Molecular Techniques
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Received: 6 November 2018 | Revised: 23 November 2018 | Accepted: 5 December 2018 DOI: 10.1111/mec.14974 SPECIAL ISSUE Introduction: Special issue on species interactions, ecological networks and community dynamics – Untangling the entangled bank using molecular techniques Tomas Roslin1 | Michael Traugott2 | Mattias Jonsson1 | Graham N. Stone3 | Simon Creer4 | William O. C. Symondson5 1Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden 2Mountain Agriculture Research Unit, Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria 3Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK 4Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Gwynedd, UK 5Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK Correspondence Tomas Roslin, Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. Email: [email protected] Funding information Swedish Research Council VR, Grant/Award Number: Dnr 2016-06872; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Centre for Biological Control KEYWORDS: antagonistic interactions, assembly processes, community ecology, ecological interaction networks, food webs, mutualistic interactions, species interactions 1 | INTRODUCTION for describing both elements of community structure (Roslin & Majaneva, 2016) and how they change in time and space (“commu- nity dynamics”). “It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed The last few years have seen a revolution in both sampling and with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on sequencing technologies. For this reason, it is time to provide a the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and sequel to the seminal Special Issue on the “Molecular Detection with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to of Trophic Interactions” edited five years ago by Symondson and reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so Harwood (2014). Building on the previous Special Issue, the cur- different from each other, and dependent upon each rent one continues the quest of “Unpicking the Tangled Bank” other in so complex a manner, have all been produced (Symondson & Harwood, 2014). Yet, where the previous compi- by laws acting around us.” (Darwin, 1859) lation focused on a specific type of ecological interactions (i.e., species feeding on each other), here we have endeavoured to In the last paragraph of the Origin of Species, Darwin (1859) provide a wider community and ecosystem relevant focus. Thus, marvels at the diversity of life forms, the complexity of links be- the Special Issue of 2014 was prepared by attendees at a meeting tween them and the forces creating this “tangled bank.” In this text, on Molecular Detection of Trophic Interactions, but the current we may see the origins of community ecology—today defined as issue reflects the collaboration between this audience and ecol- “the study of the interactions that determine the distribution and ogists with a wider interest in ecological networks—regardless of abundance of organisms” (Krebs, 2009). To capture and quantify the tools applied. Hence, the current volume is the result of syn- the key elements of this concept of community structure, we may ergistic back-to-back events organized at the Swedish University conveniently describe communities as ecological networks (Hagen of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, in September 2017: the 3rd et al., 2012). In such networks, the nodes are formed by species (or Symposium on Molecular Detection of Trophic Interactions and other taxonomic units) and the links by their interactions (Gravel et the 3rd Symposium on Ecological Networks, enhanced via further al., 2018). Modern molecular methods offer unique opportunities networking. Molecular Ecology. 2019;28:157–164. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mec © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd | 157 158 | ROSLIN ET AL. Many of the papers included in this volume were presented at Clare, 2019), fungus–fungivore interactions (Koskinen et al., 2019) one of these meetings, but others were added later to increase the and multifaceted interactions (Clare et al., 2019). scope and breadth of the Special Issue. The resulting issue offers a As a specific insight, the study by Doña, Proctor, et al. (2019) suite of studies applying molecular tools to resolving questions fo- reveals how the application of molecular tools can even force us to cused on ecological interaction networks and their dynamics. The pa- re-evaluate previous concepts of the type of specific interactions. pers included also comprise studies offering broad-ranging technical Using evidence from both light microscopy and metabarcoding, solutions for dealing with large and diverse communities, as well as these authors show that vane-dwelling feather mites share a com- reviews and summaries identifying the limits and caveats associated mensalistic–mutualistic association with their bird hosts, by feeding with quantifying community and interaction structure by molecular on fungi, microbes and detritus in the plumage. In fact, the authors means. When including research with a methodological focus, we have find no evidence of feather mites feeding upon bird resources such carefully looked for particularly important and impactful studies, where as blood or skin. Consequently, the mites are recast as commensal the results clearly transcend the specific system studied, that is, where organisms likely causing no harm but offering clear benefits to their the methodological improvements achieved are likely to be useful for a hosts. wider range of future studies. In all other papers included in the Special Emphasizing the message from previous reviews (from Issue, the focus is on the ecology. In other words, these works deliver Symondson & Harwood, 2014 to Roslin & Majaneva, 2016), the significant ecological findings obtained by molecular approaches. featured case studies also reveal just how much power molecular By including a blend of papers studying multiple types of in- tools add by resolving “hidden” and hard-to-observe ecological in- teractions, taxa and realms (both aquatic and terrestrial), we hope teractions (Wirta et al., 2014). By allowing us to pinpoint associa- to provide, in a single issue of Molecular Ecology, a comprehen- tions between organisms which liquefy their prey (Eitzinger et al., sive glimpse of the state of the art in this rapidly developing field. 2019; Littlefair et al., 2019; Sint et al., 2019; Verschut, Strandmark, In particular, we hope that this issue will serve as a stimulus and Esparza-Salas, & Hambäck 2019), hide within their hosts (Gariepy catalyst for ecologists contemplating the use of molecular tools et al., 2019; Kitson et al., 2019), lack all diagnostic characters as lar- for community dissection (see also Bohan et al., 2017). Individual vae (Gariepy et al., 2019; Kitson et al., 2019; Koskinen et al., 2019), papers reveal how molecular tools are being fruitfully applied to hunt at night (Mata et al., 2019) or are simply too small and simi- many types of nodes and links, and the many types of networks lar to describe by any other means (Jones & Hallin, 2019; Walters formed from such elements. As an arguably thought-provoking et al., 2019), they reveal new aspects of community organization. perspective, they also show molecular techniques can be applied Importantly, this is not a question of adding fine nuance to main to describe full communities rather than their parts simultane- colour, but of repainting the whole picture. Since these types of in- ously—that is, to resolve multiple types of links among multiple teractions form the majority of all interactions on the globe, they kingdoms of taxa (Clare et al., 2019), thus opening new vistas on will profoundly affect our understanding of not only specific com- “networks of networks.” Out of necessity, such initiatives so far munities (Wirta et al., 2014), but of how communities in general are have had to be built from multiple data sources (Pocock, Evans, & assembled and work. Memmott, 2012; Wirta et al., 2015). The findings regarding particular interactions range from insight into emergent features such as levels of specialization in ecological interaction networks (Clare et al., 2019; Doña, Proctor, et al., 2019; 2 | A CORNUCOPIA OF INTERACTION Doña, Serrano, et al., 2019; Koskinen et al., 2019; Sepp et al., 2019) TYPES AND TAXA to the role of individual seed dispersers in seed dispersal networks. As a case in point, González-Varo, Arroyo, and Jordano (2019) are In terms of the types of interactions addressed, this Special Issue able to show how much of an ecological function (seed dispersal) shows how molecular techniques can be applied to resolving mutual- is concentrated to particular species at particular points in time. istic interactions such as pollen transport (Bell et al., 2019; Tiusanen Migratory bird species may only be passing through an area, but still et al., 2019) and seed dispersal (González-Varo et al., 2019), antago- be main agents of seed dispersal for particular plants. This empha- nistic interactions including predator–prey interactions (Deagle et al., sizes the need for resolving variation in network structure through 2019; Eitzinger et al., 2019; Mata et al., 2019; Sint, Kaufmann, Mayer, time, for which molecular techniques are ideally placed (González- & Traugott, 2019; Verschut, Strandmark, Esparza-Salas, & Hambäck Varo et al., 2019). 2019 Walters et al., 2019), predator–prey-and-detritus interactions In a similar