PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 35: Evolutionary Ecology
Thursday, August 11, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Scaling the Niche: A New Synthesis.
Haefner, James1, Lemasson, Bertrand*,1, Rothlisberger, John2, Bakin, Amanda1, Walker, Jesse1, Hansen, Kevin1, 1 Utah State University, Ecology Center, Logan, Utah2 University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
ABSTRACT- Why is scale not an axis in the Niche concept? Although the literature is replete with studies on animal movement across space and extensive work has been done on the role of spatial and temporal variability in species coexistence, weak ties remain between behavioral ecology and population ecology. We present a new synthesis of the niche that integrates the scale of individual resource use with the classical Hutchinsonian concept and recent niche analyses of the ecological impacts of population interactions. To illustrate the effects of individual scale on coexistence, we use a two species-one resource scenario to provide qualitative relationships between foraging scale (grain and extent) and the species impact vectors on the shared resource. A conceptual model is used to relate foraging scale (intensive vs. extensive) and resource impacts within the habitat in order to expand upon work done on the niche concept by Leibold and Chase. In our example, a relatively more coarse-grained species will require a greater energetic return to balance travel costs compared to the finer grained species with smaller extent and reduced costs. Consequently, the coarser grain species must consume more than the competitor in order to balance its energy budget, but will have less of an impact on the resource by diffusing its energetic needs over a larger scale (allowing more time for resource regeneration). Differences in foraging strategy (intensive vs. extensive) among heterospecifics can be caused by morphological, behavioral, or interspecific/intraspecific competitive differences. A simple simulation model that varies motility across competitors quantifies the dynamic consequences of these niche differences.
Key words: Niche, Scale, coexistence