Avoiding perceived past resource use of potential competitors affects niche dynamics in a bird community

BMC Evolutionary Biology

Research Article

Janne-Tuomas Seppänen¹  Tuomo Jaakkonen²  Jukka T Forsman³  Sami M Kivelä⁴  Blandine Doligez⁵  Lars Gustafsson⁶ 

[1] Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland;Department of Biology, University of Oulu, FI-90014, Oulu, Finland;Department of Biology, University of Oulu, FI-90014, Oulu, Finland;Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, University of Turku, FI-20014, Turku, Finland;Department of Biology, University of Oulu, FI-90014, Oulu, Finland;Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Biometry and Evolutionary Biology, CNRS, University of Lyon, F-69622, Villeurbenne Cedex, France;Department of Ecology and Genetics/Animal Ecology, EBC, Uppsala Universit, SE-752 36, Norbyvägen 18D, Uppsala, Sweden;

关键词: Species interactions;    Social information use;    Resource partitioning;    Intra- and interspecific competition;    Niche division;    Nest-site selection;    Cavity nesting birds;    Parus;    Ficedula;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12862-014-0175-2

 received in 2014-04-30, accepted in 2014-07-24,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSocial 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.ResultsOf 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.ConclusionsOur 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. Our 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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Forsman et al.; BioMed Central Ltd 2014