Uncertainties exist about the value of non-prey food for predators that are commonly food-limited, and the dietary conditions where non-prey foods are beneficial for carnivorous species. Prior studies show that large quantities of pollen grains are intercepted in the webs of web-building spiders. We examined the nutritional benefits of pollen as a non-prey food for a common ground-dwelling, she...

in this study, three stations of the north persian gulf were analyzed in order to determinethe effect of trophic levels on the concentration of harmful pahs in fish and sediment. in all cases,similar distributions were observed in which benzo(a)pyrene largely predominated andbenzo(b)fluoranthene and pyrene were the second major compounds in fish tissues. the predominantcomponents of pahs in sed...

Carolina bays are depression wetlands of high conservation value that occur across the Southeastern Coastal Plain of the United States. Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is one rare carnivorous plant that grows in open habitats on the rims of Carolina bays. Without frequent burning, vegetation on bay rims becomes dominated by evergreen shrubs and Venus flytrap populations decline. This project ...

Carnivorous aquatic plants, genus Utricularia (Lentibulariaceae), capture small aquatic organisms, such as rotifers, copepods, and cladocerans, by means of anatomical structures named bladders. The present study aimed to determine prey size and composition in U. gibba and U inflata, which were collected from a small lake and an herbaceous wetland, respectively, located in Paria Peninsula (Sucre...

The proteolytic activities of the digestive tract of three carnivorous fish species (Sebastes mentella, Scophthalmus maximus, Sparus aurata) have been studied. The activity found in the stomach showed a pH optimum of 2.0 for all species, whereas this was in the alkaline range (9.5-10.0) in the intestinal extracts. Similar optimal temperature was measured for all species, although higher residua...

The extent to which species' ecological and phylogenetic relatedness shape their co-occurrence patterns at large spatial scales remains poorly understood. By quantifying phylogenetic assemblage structure within geographic ranges of >8000 bird species, we show that global co-occurrence patterns are linked - after accounting for regional effects - to key ecological traits reflecting diet, mobilit...