A test of five mechanisms of species coexistence between rodents in a southern African savanna
| Autor: | Burt P. Kotler, M.R. Perrin |
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| Rok vydání: | 2005 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | African Zoology. 40:55-61 |
| ISSN: | 2224-073X 1562-7020 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/15627020.2005.11407309 |
| Popis: | The operation of five different mechanisms of species coexistence in a community of rodents was examined in a semi-arid Kalahari savanna in southern Africa. The two most common species were Tatera leucogasterl/Ig (bushveld gerbil) and Rhabdomys pumiliol/Ig (striped mouse). The mechanisms examined were habitat selection in a mosaic, microhabitat selection, spatial variation in resource abundance, temporal variation in resource abundance, and diet partitioning. The rodents were censused using mark-recapture live trapping, activity measured using sand-tracking, and foraging efficiency measured using giving-up densities (GUDs; the amount of food remaining following patch exploitation) in experimental food patches. There was no support for any of the five mechanisms: T. leucogasterl/Ig tended to be a more efficient and mobile forager than R. pumilio . It is suggested that coexistence maybe based on a sixth mechanism, seasonal variation in resource abundance and a tradeoff of maintenance efficiency versus foraging efficiency. Further, it appears that R. pumiliol/Ig is more efficient at maintaining harvest potential, not by maintaining high consumer biomass, but rather by having a high intrinsic rate of increase. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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