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Competition02:34

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Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity
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Is competition needed for ecological character displacement? Does displacement decrease competition?

Peter A Abrams1, Michael H Cortez2

  • 1Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto:, 25 Harbord St., Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G5, Canada. peter.abrams@utoronto.ca.

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|November 10, 2015
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Ecological character displacement can occur even without direct competition, driven by resource abundance. This evolutionary divergence always reduces the consumer

Keywords:
Character displacementcompetitionconsumer-resource systemdivergenceinterspecific interaction

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Theoretical Ecology

Background:

  • Interspecific competition is traditionally viewed as the primary driver of ecological character displacement.
  • Skepticism regarding the prevalence of character displacement often stems from a lack of direct evidence for competition.
  • Ecological character displacement is assumed to reduce interspecific competition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether interspecific competition is a necessary condition for ecological character displacement.
  • To determine if ecological character displacement effectively reduces competition.
  • To analyze consumer evolution in systems with competing resources and indirect interactions.

Main Methods:

  • Development and analysis of a simple mathematical model.
  • Examination of systems with competing resources and a single evolving consumer.
  • Quantification of interspecific competition using multiple measures.

Main Results:

  • Selection for consumer divergence occurs irrespective of the level of competition between resources or the type of indirect interaction (competition, mutualism, contramensalism).
  • Divergent evolution consistently leads to a decrease in the equilibrium population size of the evolving consumer.
  • The effect of divergence on the impact of subsequent perturbations depends on model parameters and competition measures.

Conclusions:

  • Interspecific competition is not a prerequisite for ecological character displacement.
  • Divergent evolution can arise from changes in resource abundance, even in mutualistic interactions.
  • Ecological character displacement has complex effects on population dynamics and responses to environmental changes.