Host specialist clownfishes are environmental niche generalists.

ABSTRACT: Why generalist and specialist species coexist in nature is a question that has interested evolutionary biologists for a long time. While the coexistence of specialists and generalists exploiting resources on a single ecological dimension has been theoretically and empirically explored, biological systems with multiple resource dimensions (e.g. trophic, ecological) are less well understood. Yet, such systems may provide an alternative to the classical theory of stable evolutionary coexistence of generalist and specialist species on a single resource dimension. We explore such systems and the potential trade-offs between different resource dimensions in clownfishes. All species of this iconic clade are obligate mutualists with sea anemones yet show interspecific variation in anemone host spe

SUBMITTER: Litsios G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4213602 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature