TY - GEN A1 - Michalko, Radek A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Pekár, Stano T1 - Interaction between hunting strategy, habitat type and stratum drive intraguild predation and cannibalism T2 - Oikos N2 - Intraguild predation (IGP) is a common interaction between generalist predators when they competitively exploit similar resources and prey on each other. Theoretical models predict limitations for intraguild predator coexistence unless some mechanisms, such as the utilization of alternative prey (i.e. trophic niche partitioning) and cannibalism, increase the relative intraspecific clustering and interspecific segregation. As hunting strategies determine trophic niches of predators and their own vulnerability to predation, the hunting strategies may also determine the relative importance of cannibalism, predation, and exploitative competition and consequently the intensity of IGP. The importance of hunting strategies on the potential outcome of IGP and how habitat properties modify the interaction between hunting strategies remain poorly understood. Using published data on spider prey of spider predators, we first investigated how predation of a top-predator on a mesopredator is determined by the functional distance between both predators to understand how predation and exploitation are distributed in spider communities. Subsequently, we investigated the predation among spiders with particular hunting strategies to understand which strategies interact most frequently. We also investigated whether the interaction between hunting strategies was influenced by habitat type (forest, open (semi)natural habitat, agroecosystem) or by habitat stratum (ground versus vegetation). The hunting strategies of top-predators and mesopredators interacted to determine the relative capture proportions of conspecifics and hetero-specifics. This interaction was further modified by habitat type and stratum. Two mechanisms can reinforce coexistence in highly diverse spider communities. First, top-predators preyed most frequently on functionally distinct mesopredators, which indicates the overall intensity of IGP may be relaxed by a balanced distribution between exploitative competition and predation. Second, cannibalism was common for top-predators with a hunting strategy of frequently preying on functionally similar mesopredators. Cannibalism may lead to self-limitation of top-predator populations and may thereby facilitate coexistence between two predator species. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.08355 SN - 1600-0706 IS - 3 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Michalko, Radek A1 - Košulič, Ondřej A1 - Martinek, Petr A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus T1 - Disturbance by invasive pathogenic fungus alters arthropod predator – prey food webs in ash plantations T2 - Journal of Animal Ecology N2 - 1. According to the disturbance-succession theory, natural disturbances support biodiversity and are expected to increase the complexity of food-webs in for-est ecosystems by opening canopies and creating a heterogeneous environment. However, a limited number of studies have investigated the impact of disturbance by invasive pathogenic species and succession on arthropod predator–prey food-webs in forest ecosystems.2. Hymenoscyphus fraxineus is a pathogenic fungus of ash trees that is invasive in Europe and causes massive dieback, mainly of the common ash Fraxinus excelsioracross its native range. Here we investigated how this pathogenic fungus affects food- webs of web- building spiders and their prey in understorey vegetation of ash plantations.3. In 23 young and middle-aged ash plantations that were distributed along a gradi-ent of infestation by H. fraxineus (29%– 86% infestation), we measured the vegeta-tion structure (canopy openness, shrub coverage, herb/grass coverage), the trait composition of local spider communities (web type, body size), the prey availabil-ity and the prey intercepted by spider webs. We then evaluated the multivariate prey composition (prey type, body size) and network properties.4. Hymenoscyphus fraxineus opened the ash tree canopy, which resulted in denser shrub coverage. The dense shrub vegetation changed the composition of web types in local spider communities and increasing fungus infestation resulted in reduced mean body size of spiders. Infestation by H. fraxineus reduced the avail-ability of predaceous Coleoptera and increased the availability of herbivorous Coleoptera as potential prey. The mean body size of captured prey and the per capita capture rates of most prey groups decreased with increasing fungus in-festation. Hymenoscyphus fraxineus infestation indirectly reduced the complexity in bipartite networks and the trophic functional complementarity in local web- building spider communities. The plantation age affected the vegetation structure but did not affect the studied food-webs.5. Forest disturbance by the invasive pathogen affected four trophic levels (plant– herbivore–coleopteran intermediate predator–top predator web- building spiders) and, contrary to the disturbance-succession theory, disturbance by the fungus simplified the web- building spider- prey food-webs. The results support the view that H. fraxineus represents a threat to the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the simplified ecosystems of ash plantations. KW - body size KW - Fraxinus KW - Hymenoscyphus fraxineus KW - indirect interaction KW - network KW - spider Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13537 SN - 1365-2656 SN - 0021-8790 VL - 90 IS - 9 SP - 2213 EP - 2226 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Djoudi, El Aziz A1 - Schnerch, Benjamin A1 - Michalko, Radek T1 - Climatic conditions and functional traits affect spider diets in agricultural and non-agricultural habitats worldwide T2 - Ecography N2 - Spiders are dominant predators in terrestrial ecosystems and feed on prey from the herbivore and detritivore subsystem (dual subsystem omnivory) as well as on other predators (intraguild predation). Little is known about how global change potentially affects the importance of different prey groups in predator diets. In this meta-analysis we identify the impact of climatic conditions, land-use types and functional traits of spider species on the relative importance of Hemiptera, Araneae and Collembola prey in spider diets. We use a dataset including 78 publications with 149 observational records of the diet composition of 96 spider species in agricultural and non-agricultural habitats in 24 countries worldwide. The importance of Hemiptera prey was not affected by climatic conditions and was particularily high in smaller spider species in agricultural habitats. Araneae prey was most important for actively hunting, larger spider species in non-agricultural habitats. Collembola prey was most important for small, actively hunting spider species in regions with higher temperature seasonality. Spider species with a higher importance of Araneae prey for their diet also had higher importances of Collembola and lower importances of Hemiptera prey. Future increases of temperature seasonality predicted for several regions worldwide may go along with an increasing importance of Collembola prey which also related to a higher importance of intraguild prey here. Two global change drivers predicted for many regions of the world (increasing climatic seasonality and ongoing conversion of non-agricultural to agricultural land) both hold the potential to increase the importance of Collembola prey in spider diets. The importance of Hemiptera and Araneae prey may however show contrasting responses to these two drivers. These complex potential effects of global change components and their impact on functional traits in spider communities highlight the importance to simultaneously consider multiple drivers of global change to better understand future predator–prey interactions. KW - alternative prey KW - biological control KW - climate change KW - intraguild predation KW - land-use change KW - predator–prey interactions Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06090 SN - 1600-0587 IS - 3 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Khum, Warbota A1 - Košulič, Ondřej A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Michalko, Radek T1 - The invasive pathogenic fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus alters predator–herbivore–ash food webs. T2 - Biological Invasions Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-022-02900-9 SN - 1573-1464 SN - 1387-3547 IS - 25 SP - 125 EP - 131 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Michalko, Radek A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus T1 - Habitat niches suggest that non-crop habitat types differ in quality as source habitats for Central European agrobiont spiders T2 - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment KW - crop KW - functional composition KW - Generalist KW - Landscape KW - Niche filtering KW - Specialist Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2020.107248 SN - 0167-8809 VL - 308 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Tölgyesi, Csaba A1 - Bátori, Zoltán A1 - Pascarella, John A1 - Erdős, László A1 - Török, Péter A1 - Batáry, Péter A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Scherer, Laura A1 - Michalko, Radek A1 - Košulič, Ondřej A1 - Zaller, Johann G. A1 - Gallé, Róbert T1 - Ecovoltaics: Framework and future research directions to reconcile land-based solar power development with ecosystem conservation T2 - Biological Conservation N2 - Renewable energy production is gaining momentum globally as a way to combat climate change without drastically reducing human energy consumption. Solar energy offers the fastest developing solution. However, ground-mounted solar panels have a high land requirement, which leads to conflicts with other land use types, particularly agriculture and biodiversity conservation. The dual land use of agrivoltaics, i.e., continuing agricultural production under and between solar panels, may alleviate farmers' concerns, but less effort has been made to reconcile solar development with biodiversity conservation. Here we provide a framework for creating a win-win situation for this growing challenge using recent literature on solar park habitats complemented with ecological theories. We also highlight important knowledge gaps that future research should address. Our framework uses a unique land-sharing approach and is based on five pillars that cover key aspects of solar park planning and maintenance: (1) eco-smart siting in the landscape, which considers ecological interactions with the landscape matrix and trade-offs between multiple small vs. fewer large solar parks; (2) eco-smart park layout to address the ecological aspects of the spatial configuration of solar park infrastructure; (3) creation of diverse, novel grassland ecosystems with high ecosystem service provisioning capacity using a trait-based ecosystem design approach; (4) management of the novel ecosystem throughout the lifespan of the solar parks; and (5) ensuring stakeholder engagement to integrate this in a viable business model with high community acceptance. With this framework, we open the way for a new multifunctional land use type: the ecovoltaic park. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110242 SN - 0006-3207 VL - 285 ER -