ArticlePloS one2015
Highly overlapping winter diet in two sympatric lemming species revealed by DNA metabarcoding.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 165 citations in OpenAlex.
- How quantitative is metabarcoding: A meta-analytical approach.Molecular ecology · 2019Pooled it
- Diet Metabarcoding Reveals Correlations Between the Consumption of Slugs and Hepatic Toxicants in European Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus).Integrative zoology · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Quantitative Accuracy and Application of DNA Metabarcoding for Dietary Reconstruction in Ruminants.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Metabarcoding Reveals Fine Scale Patterns of Trophic Resource Use and Partitioning Along Gradients of Land Use and Deer Density in a Multi-Species Ungulate Community.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Article
- A 75,000-y-old Scandinavian Arctic cave deposit reveals past faunal diversity and paleoenvironment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Wild and domesticated animal abundance is associated with greater late-Holocene alpine plant diversity.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Plant interactions associated with a directional shift in the richness range size relationship during the Glacial-Holocene transition in the Arctic.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Potential plant extinctions with the loss of the Pleistocene mammoth steppe.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Forage preference in two geographically co-occurring fungus gardening ants: A dietary DNA approach.PloS one · 2025Article
- Influence of habitat on fine-scale space use by brown lemmings (Journal of mammalogy · 2024Article
- Is the diet cyclic phase-dependent in boreal vole populations?Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Ecological and phylogenetic aspects of the spring diet of three palaearctic species of swans.BMC ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Novel frontier in wildlife monitoring: Identification of small rodent species from fecal pellets using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS).Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- High resolution ancient sedimentary DNA shows that alpine plant diversity is associated with human land use and climate change.Nature communications · 2022Article
- DNA metabarcoding suggests adaptive seasonal variation of individual trophic traits in a critically endangered fish.Molecular ecology · 2022Article
- Postglacial species arrival and diversity buildup of northern ecosystems took millennia.Science advances · 2022Article
- Density-dependent demography and movements in a cyclic brown lemming population.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Review
- Metagenomics: A viable tool for reconstructing herbivore diet.Molecular ecology resources · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 8 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sympatric species are expected to minimize competition by partitioning resources, especially when these are limited. Herbivores inhabiting the High Arctic in winter are a prime example of a situation where food availability is anticipated to be low, and thus reduced diet overlap is expected. We present here the first assessment of diet overlap of high arctic lemmings during winter based on DNA metabarcoding of feces. In contrast to previous analyses based on microhistology, we found that the diets of both collared (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus) and brown lemmings (Lemmus trimucronatus) on Bylot Island were dominated by Salix while mosses, which were significantly consumed only by the brown lemming, were a relatively minor food item. The most abundant plant taxon, Cassiope tetragona, which alone composes more than 50% of the available plant biomass, was not detected in feces and can thus be considered to be non-food. Most plant taxa that were identified as food items were consumed in proportion to their availability and none were clearly selected for. The resulting high diet overlap, together with a lack of habitat segregation, indicates a high potential for resource competition between the two lemming species. However, Salix is abundant in the winter habitats of lemmings on Bylot Island and the non-Salix portion of the diets differed between the two species. Also, lemming grazing impact on vegetation during winter in the study area is negligible. Hence, it seems likely that the high potential for resource competition predicted between these two species did not translate into actual competition. This illustrates that even in environments with low primary productivity food resources do not necessarily generate strong competition among herbivores.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.