Cargando…
The Role of Body Size and Shape in Understanding Competitive Interactions within a Community of Neotropical Dung Beetles
Geometric morphometrics is helpful for understanding how body size and body shape influence the strength of inter-specific competitive interactions in a community. Dung beetles, characterized by their use of decomposing organic material, provide a useful model for understanding the structuring of ec...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
University of Wisconsin Library
2011
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3281377/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21526928 http://dx.doi.org/10.1673/031.011.0113 |
_version_ | 1782223959961370624 |
---|---|
author | Hernández, Malva I. M. Monteiro, Leandro R. Favila, Mario E. |
author_facet | Hernández, Malva I. M. Monteiro, Leandro R. Favila, Mario E. |
author_sort | Hernández, Malva I. M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Geometric morphometrics is helpful for understanding how body size and body shape influence the strength of inter-specific competitive interactions in a community. Dung beetles, characterized by their use of decomposing organic material, provide a useful model for understanding the structuring of ecological communities and the role of competition based on their size and morphology. The relationship between body size and shape in a dung beetle community from the Atlantic Forest in Serra do Japi, Brazil was analyzed for 39 species. Fifteen anatomical landmarks on three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates were used to describe both the shape and the size of the body of each species on the basis of the centroid located along homologous points in all of the species. The first vector of a principal components analysis explained 38.5% of the morphological variation among species, and represents a gradient of body shape from elongated, flattened bodies with narrow abdomen to rounded or convex bodies. The second component explained 17.8% of the remaining variation in body shape, which goes from species with an abdomen that is larger than the elytra to species with constricted abdomens and large elytra. The relationship between body size and shape was analyzed separately for diurnal and nocturnal species. In both guilds not only were there differences in body size, but also in body shape, suggesting a reduction in their level of competition. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3281377 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | University of Wisconsin Library |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-32813772012-02-24 The Role of Body Size and Shape in Understanding Competitive Interactions within a Community of Neotropical Dung Beetles Hernández, Malva I. M. Monteiro, Leandro R. Favila, Mario E. J Insect Sci Article Geometric morphometrics is helpful for understanding how body size and body shape influence the strength of inter-specific competitive interactions in a community. Dung beetles, characterized by their use of decomposing organic material, provide a useful model for understanding the structuring of ecological communities and the role of competition based on their size and morphology. The relationship between body size and shape in a dung beetle community from the Atlantic Forest in Serra do Japi, Brazil was analyzed for 39 species. Fifteen anatomical landmarks on three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates were used to describe both the shape and the size of the body of each species on the basis of the centroid located along homologous points in all of the species. The first vector of a principal components analysis explained 38.5% of the morphological variation among species, and represents a gradient of body shape from elongated, flattened bodies with narrow abdomen to rounded or convex bodies. The second component explained 17.8% of the remaining variation in body shape, which goes from species with an abdomen that is larger than the elytra to species with constricted abdomens and large elytra. The relationship between body size and shape was analyzed separately for diurnal and nocturnal species. In both guilds not only were there differences in body size, but also in body shape, suggesting a reduction in their level of competition. University of Wisconsin Library 2011-02-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3281377/ /pubmed/21526928 http://dx.doi.org/10.1673/031.011.0113 Text en © 2011 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Article Hernández, Malva I. M. Monteiro, Leandro R. Favila, Mario E. The Role of Body Size and Shape in Understanding Competitive Interactions within a Community of Neotropical Dung Beetles |
title | The Role of Body Size and Shape in Understanding Competitive Interactions within a Community of Neotropical Dung Beetles |
title_full | The Role of Body Size and Shape in Understanding Competitive Interactions within a Community of Neotropical Dung Beetles |
title_fullStr | The Role of Body Size and Shape in Understanding Competitive Interactions within a Community of Neotropical Dung Beetles |
title_full_unstemmed | The Role of Body Size and Shape in Understanding Competitive Interactions within a Community of Neotropical Dung Beetles |
title_short | The Role of Body Size and Shape in Understanding Competitive Interactions within a Community of Neotropical Dung Beetles |
title_sort | role of body size and shape in understanding competitive interactions within a community of neotropical dung beetles |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3281377/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21526928 http://dx.doi.org/10.1673/031.011.0113 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT hernandezmalvaim theroleofbodysizeandshapeinunderstandingcompetitiveinteractionswithinacommunityofneotropicaldungbeetles AT monteiroleandror theroleofbodysizeandshapeinunderstandingcompetitiveinteractionswithinacommunityofneotropicaldungbeetles AT favilamarioe theroleofbodysizeandshapeinunderstandingcompetitiveinteractionswithinacommunityofneotropicaldungbeetles AT hernandezmalvaim roleofbodysizeandshapeinunderstandingcompetitiveinteractionswithinacommunityofneotropicaldungbeetles AT monteiroleandror roleofbodysizeandshapeinunderstandingcompetitiveinteractionswithinacommunityofneotropicaldungbeetles AT favilamarioe roleofbodysizeandshapeinunderstandingcompetitiveinteractionswithinacommunityofneotropicaldungbeetles |