Complex community-wide consequences of consumer sexual dimorphism.

Autor: De Lisle SP; Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA., Schrieber SJ; Department of Evolution and Ecology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA., Bolnick DI; Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Journal of animal ecology [J Anim Ecol] 2022 May; Vol. 91 (5), pp. 958-969. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Mar 21.
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13685
Abstrakt: Sexual dimorphism is a ubiquitous source of within-species variation, yet the community-level consequences of sex differences remain poorly understood. Here, we analyse a bitrophic model of two competing resource species and a sexually reproducing consumer species. We show that consumer sex differences in resource acquisition can have striking consequences for consumer-resource coexistence, abundance and dynamics. Under both direct interspecific competition and apparent competition between two resource species, sexual dimorphism in consumers' attack rates can mediate coexistence of the resource species, while in other cases can lead to exclusion when stable coexistence is typically expected. Slight sex differences in total resource acquisition also can reverse competitive outcomes and lead to density cycles. These effects are expected whenever both consumer sexes require different amounts or types of resources to reproduce. Our results suggest that consumer sexual dimorphism, which is common, has wide-reaching implications for the assembly and dynamics of natural communities.
(© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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