Avoiding perceived past resource use of potential competitors affects niche dynamics in a bird community
Forsman, J. T., Kivelä, S. M., Jaakkonen, T., Seppänen, J.-T., Gustafsson, L., & Doligez, B. (2014). Avoiding perceived past resource use of potential competitors affects niche dynamics in a bird community. BMC evolutionary biology, 14, Article 175. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-014-0175-2
Published in
BMC evolutionary biologyAuthors
Date
2014Copyright
© 2014 BioMed Central Ltd. Further distribution has been made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
Abstract.
Background:
Social information use is usually considered to lead to ecological convergence among involved
con- or heterospecific individuals. However, recent results demonstrate that observers can also actively avoid
behaving as those individuals being observed, leading to ecological divergence. This phenomenon has been little
explored so far, yet it can have significant impact on resource use, realized niches and species co-existence. In
particular, the time-scale and the ecological context over which such shifts can occur are unknown. We examined
with a long-term (four years) field experiment whether experimentally manipulated, species-specific, nest-site feature
preferences (symbols on nest boxes) are transmitted across breeding seasons and affect future nest-site preferences
in a guild of three cavity-nesting birds.
Results:
Of the examined species, resident great tits (
Parus major
) preferred the symbol that had been associated
with unoccupied nest boxes in the previous year, i.e., their preference shifted towards niche space previously
unused by putative competitors and conspecifics.
Conclusions:
Our results show that animals can remember the earlier resource use of conspecifics and other guild
members and adjust own decisions accordingly one year after. Our experiment cannot reveal the ultimate mechanism(s)
behind the observed behaviour but avoiding costs of intra- or
interspecific competition
or ectoparasite load in old
nests are plausible reasons. O
ur findings imply that interspecific social information use can affect resource sharing
and realized niches in ecological time-scale through
active avoidance of observed decisions and behavior of
potentially competing species.
...
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BioMed Central Ltd.ISSN Search the Publication Forum
1471-2148Keywords
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2014 BioMed Central Ltd. Further distribution has been made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
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