Cargando…

Coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use

BACKGROUND: Range expansion of species, a major consequence of climate changes, may alter communities substantially due to competition between expanding and native species. METHODS: We first quantified size differences between an expanding habitat generalist, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and a circu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Warret Rodrigues, Chloé, Roth, James D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10544556/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37784160
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-023-00421-1
_version_ 1785114525433856000
author Warret Rodrigues, Chloé
Roth, James D.
author_facet Warret Rodrigues, Chloé
Roth, James D.
author_sort Warret Rodrigues, Chloé
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Range expansion of species, a major consequence of climate changes, may alter communities substantially due to competition between expanding and native species. METHODS: We first quantified size differences between an expanding habitat generalist, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and a circumpolar habitat specialist, the Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus), at the edge of the Arctic, where climate-related changes occur rapidly, to predict the likelihood of the larger competitor escalating interference to intraguild killing. We then used satellite telemetry to evaluate competition in a heterogeneous landscape by examining space use early during the foxes' reproductive period, when resource scarcity, increased-food requirements and spatial constraints likely exacerbate the potential for interference. We used time-LoCoH to quantify space and habitat use, and Minta's index to quantify spatio-temporal interactions between neighbors. RESULTS: Our morphometric comparison involving 236 foxes found that the potential for escalated interference between these species was high due to intermediate size difference. However, our results from 17 collared foxes suggested that expanding and native competitors may coexist when expanding species occur at low densities. Low home-range overlap between neighbors suggested territoriality and substantial exploitation competition for space. No obvious differential use of areas shared by heterospecific neighbors suggested low interference. If anything, intraspecific competition between red foxes may be stronger than interspecific competition. Red and Arctic foxes used habitat differentially, with near-exclusive use of forest patches by red foxes and marine habitats by Arctic foxes. CONCLUSION: Heterogeneous landscapes may relax interspecific competition between expanding and native species, allowing exclusive use of some resources. Furthermore, the scarcity of habitats favored by expanding species may emphasize intraspecific competition between newcomers over interspecific competition, thus creating the potential for self-limitation of expanding populations. Dominant expanding competitors may benefit from interference, but usually lack adaptations to abiotic conditions at their expansion front, favoring rear-edge subordinate species in exploitation competition. However, due to ongoing climate change, systems are usually not at equilibrium. A spread of habitats and resources favorable to expanding species may promote higher densities of antagonistically dominant newcomers, which may lead to extirpation of native species. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40462-023-00421-1.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10544556
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-105445562023-10-03 Coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use Warret Rodrigues, Chloé Roth, James D. Mov Ecol Research BACKGROUND: Range expansion of species, a major consequence of climate changes, may alter communities substantially due to competition between expanding and native species. METHODS: We first quantified size differences between an expanding habitat generalist, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and a circumpolar habitat specialist, the Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus), at the edge of the Arctic, where climate-related changes occur rapidly, to predict the likelihood of the larger competitor escalating interference to intraguild killing. We then used satellite telemetry to evaluate competition in a heterogeneous landscape by examining space use early during the foxes' reproductive period, when resource scarcity, increased-food requirements and spatial constraints likely exacerbate the potential for interference. We used time-LoCoH to quantify space and habitat use, and Minta's index to quantify spatio-temporal interactions between neighbors. RESULTS: Our morphometric comparison involving 236 foxes found that the potential for escalated interference between these species was high due to intermediate size difference. However, our results from 17 collared foxes suggested that expanding and native competitors may coexist when expanding species occur at low densities. Low home-range overlap between neighbors suggested territoriality and substantial exploitation competition for space. No obvious differential use of areas shared by heterospecific neighbors suggested low interference. If anything, intraspecific competition between red foxes may be stronger than interspecific competition. Red and Arctic foxes used habitat differentially, with near-exclusive use of forest patches by red foxes and marine habitats by Arctic foxes. CONCLUSION: Heterogeneous landscapes may relax interspecific competition between expanding and native species, allowing exclusive use of some resources. Furthermore, the scarcity of habitats favored by expanding species may emphasize intraspecific competition between newcomers over interspecific competition, thus creating the potential for self-limitation of expanding populations. Dominant expanding competitors may benefit from interference, but usually lack adaptations to abiotic conditions at their expansion front, favoring rear-edge subordinate species in exploitation competition. However, due to ongoing climate change, systems are usually not at equilibrium. A spread of habitats and resources favorable to expanding species may promote higher densities of antagonistically dominant newcomers, which may lead to extirpation of native species. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40462-023-00421-1. BioMed Central 2023-10-02 /pmc/articles/PMC10544556/ /pubmed/37784160 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-023-00421-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Warret Rodrigues, Chloé
Roth, James D.
Coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use
title Coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use
title_full Coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use
title_fullStr Coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use
title_full_unstemmed Coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use
title_short Coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use
title_sort coexistence of two sympatric predators in a transitional ecosystem under constraining environmental conditions: a perspective from space and habitat use
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10544556/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37784160
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-023-00421-1
work_keys_str_mv AT warretrodrigueschloe coexistenceoftwosympatricpredatorsinatransitionalecosystemunderconstrainingenvironmentalconditionsaperspectivefromspaceandhabitatuse
AT rothjamesd coexistenceoftwosympatricpredatorsinatransitionalecosystemunderconstrainingenvironmentalconditionsaperspectivefromspaceandhabitatuse