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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 31, 2026

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Barcoding a quantified food web: crypsis, concepts, ecology and hypotheses.

M Alex Smith1, Eldon S Eveleigh, Kevin S McCann

  • 1Biodiversity Institute of Ontario and Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. salex@uoguelph.ca

Plos One
|July 15, 2011
PubMed
Summary

DNA barcoding revealed greater diversity and reduced connectence in the spruce budworm food web. This method identified cryptic host-specialists, improving ecological understanding and aiding forestry management.

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Area of Science:

  • Community ecology
  • Molecular ecology
  • Forest entomology

Background:

  • Accurate species identification is crucial for monitoring populations and understanding food web dynamics.
  • The spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana--SBW) food web in eastern North America involves over 100 natural enemies, many of which are difficult to identify taxonomically.
  • Insect parasitoids are key regulators of SBW population dynamics, but their identification presents a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the impact of DNA barcoding on understanding the diversity, connectence, and specialist-generalist frequencies within the SBW food web.
  • To integrate standardized DNA identification methods into existing field programs for forestry science.
  • To explore the utility of DNA barcoding for quantifying complex ecological interactions.

Main Methods:

  • DNA barcoding was applied to over 10% of insects collected from the SBW food web across three New Brunswick forest plots (1983-1993).
  • Additional nuclear regions were amplified for 30% of the barcoded specimens.
  • Molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) were used to estimate food web nodes based on barcode divergences.

Main Results:

  • DNA barcoding significantly increased the estimated diversity of the SBW food web and reduced its connectence.
  • Many presumed generalist parasitoids were reclassified as morphologically cryptic host-specialists.
  • The "bird feeder effect" measure of food web structure showed no difference compared to morphology-based predictions.

Conclusions:

  • DNA barcoding provides an effective tool for accurate species identification within complex food webs, enhancing ecological understanding.
  • This approach can identify cryptic species and refine our knowledge of host-parasitoid interactions, crucial for managing forest pests like SBW.
  • Integrating DNA barcoding into community ecology studies offers unprecedented precision in quantifying ecological networks, especially for previously unquantified food webs.