Competition can lead to unexpected patterns in tropical ant communities

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60077344%3A_____%2F16%3A00464729" target="_blank" >RIV/60077344:_____/16:00464729 - isvavai.cz</a>

Nalezeny alternativní kódy

RIV/60076658:12310/16:43890872

Výsledek na webu

<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1146609X16300832" target="_blank" >http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1146609X16300832</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actao.2016.06.001" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.actao.2016.06.001</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Competition can lead to unexpected patterns in tropical ant communities

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Ecological communities are structured by competitive, predatory, mutualistic and parasitic interactions combined with chance events. Separating deterministic from stochastic processes is possible, but finding statistical evidence for specific biological interactions is challenging. We attempt to solve this problem for ant communities nesting in epiphytic bird's nest ferns (Asplenium nidus) in Borneo's lowland rainforest. By recording the frequencies with which each and every single ant species occurred together, we were able to test statistically for patterns associated with inter specific competition. We found evidence for competition, but the resulting co-occurrence pattern was the opposite of what we expected. Rather than detecting species segregation the classical hallmark of competition we found species aggregation. Moreover, our approach of testing individual pairwise interactions mostly revealed spatially positive rather than negative associations. Significant negative interactions were only detected among large ants, and among species of the subfamily Ponerinae. Remarkably, the results from this study, and from a corroborating analysis of ant communities known to be structured by competition, suggest that competition within the ants leads to species aggregation rather than segregation. We believe this unexpected result is linked with the displacement of species following asymmetric competition. We conclude that analysing co-occurrence frequencies across complete species assemblages, separately for each species, and for each unique pairwise combination of species, represents a subtle yet powerful way of detecting structure and compartmentalisation in ecological communities.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Competition can lead to unexpected patterns in tropical ant communities

Popis výsledku anglicky

Ecological communities are structured by competitive, predatory, mutualistic and parasitic interactions combined with chance events. Separating deterministic from stochastic processes is possible, but finding statistical evidence for specific biological interactions is challenging. We attempt to solve this problem for ant communities nesting in epiphytic bird's nest ferns (Asplenium nidus) in Borneo's lowland rainforest. By recording the frequencies with which each and every single ant species occurred together, we were able to test statistically for patterns associated with inter specific competition. We found evidence for competition, but the resulting co-occurrence pattern was the opposite of what we expected. Rather than detecting species segregation the classical hallmark of competition we found species aggregation. Moreover, our approach of testing individual pairwise interactions mostly revealed spatially positive rather than negative associations. Significant negative interactions were only detected among large ants, and among species of the subfamily Ponerinae. Remarkably, the results from this study, and from a corroborating analysis of ant communities known to be structured by competition, suggest that competition within the ants leads to species aggregation rather than segregation. We believe this unexpected result is linked with the displacement of species following asymmetric competition. We conclude that analysing co-occurrence frequencies across complete species assemblages, separately for each species, and for each unique pairwise combination of species, represents a subtle yet powerful way of detecting structure and compartmentalisation in ecological communities.

Druh

J_x - Nezařazeno - Článek v odborném periodiku (Jimp, Jsc a Jost)

CEP obor

EH - Ekologie – společenstva

OECD FORD obor

—

Projekt

Výsledek vznikl pri realizaci vícero projektů. Více informací v záložce Projekty.

Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2016

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology

ISSN

1146-609X

e-ISSN

—

Svazek periodika

75

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

AUG 01

Stát vydavatele periodika

NL - Nizozemsko

Počet stran výsledku

11

Strana od-do

24-34

Kód UT WoS článku

000381592200004

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-84976359339