Functional responses describe foraging rates across prey densities and underlie many fundamental ecological processes. Most functional response knowledge comes from simplified lab experiments, but we do not know whether these experiments accurately represent foraging in nature. In addition, the difficulty of conducting multispecies functional response experiments means that it is unclear whether interaction strengths are weakened in the presence of multiple prey types. We developed a novel method to estimate wild predators' foraging rates from metabarcoding data and use this method to present functional responses for wild wolf spiders foraging on 27 prey families. These field functional responses were considerably reduced compared to lab functional responses. We further find that foraging is sometimes increased in the presence of other prey types, contrary to expectations. Our novel method for estimating field foraging rates will allow researchers to determine functional responses for wild predators and address long‐standing questions about foraging in nature.

中文翻译：

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元条形码的觅食率：捕食者降低了野生、多样化猎物群落的功能反应

功能反应描述了不同猎物密度的觅食率，是许多基本生态过程的基础。大多数功能反应知识来自简化的实验室实验，但我们不知道这些实验是否准确地代表了自然界的觅食。此外，进行多物种功能反应实验的困难意味着尚不清楚在存在多种猎物类型的情况下相互作用强度是否会减弱。我们开发了一种新方法，可以根据元条形码数据估计野生捕食者的觅食率，并使用该方法来呈现野生狼蛛在 27 个猎物科觅食时的功能反应。与实验室功能反应相比，这些现场功能反应大大减少。我们进一步发现，在其他猎物类型存在的情况下，觅食有时会增加，这与预期相反。我们估算野外觅食率的新方法将使研究人员能够确定野生捕食者的功能反应，并解决有关自然觅食的长期存在的问题。