Effects of the invasive plant spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe L.) on grassland arthropod communities: Use of genomic barcoding tools for ecosystems reclamation management
Bibliographic record
Abstract
British Columbia’s (BC) grasslands are home to 30 percent of the province’s species at risk and are one of Canada’s most endangered ecosystems. In BC’s Southern interior, human activities such as mining, recreation, and in certain instances, heavy livestock grazing, are altering grassland ecosystems; the increased soil disturbance may leave them susceptible to the colonization of invasive species. Invasive species can cause changes to native plant communities and nutrient cycling, and by doing so, may alter the amount and quality of habitat available for animals such as arthropods. Arthropods are diverse and contribute to energy flow and nutrient cycling, and are therefore an important group to study as a way of determining the effects of changes to ecosystem function. Spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe L.), a perennial forb native to Eastern Europe, is considered one of the most ecologically harmful invasive species in Western North America. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine if spotted knapweed is altering arthropod community structure and density in grassland habitats; and (2) to DNA metabarcode all arthropod specimens collected using methodology that could be implemented to expedite site restoration efforts. To address these objectives, pitfall traps were installed at sites that were colonized, in differing densities, by spotted knapweed, and DNA metabarcoding was conducted on specimens collected. The results suggest that spotted knapweed density indirectly correlates with arthropod functional groups through changes in plant community composition. These indirect effects show different correlations between the functional groups; suggesting that both top down and bottom up control is at play upon the introduction of spotted knapweed. Decreases in herbivore and detritivore biomass was associated with increasing spotted knapweed density. Omnivore, predator, and parasite biomass had more intricate interactions. DNA metabarcoding results indicated a more complex interaction between Orthoptera and spotted knapweed density than suggested by a simple positive correlation. All other arthropod orders sampled were not obviously influenced by spotted knapweed. This study describes a relatively rapid and inexpensive technique for monitoring arthropod biodiversity with a DNA metabarcoding methodology applicable to both invasive species conservation efforts and for guiding remediation work in disturbed grassland sites.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".