Trophic Niche Differentiation in Rodents and Marsupials Revealed by Stable Isotopes.

ABSTRACT: Tropical rainforests support the greatest diversity of small mammals in the world, yet we have little understanding about the mechanisms that promote the coexistence of species. Diet partitioning can favor coexistence by lessening competition, and interspecific differences in body size and habitat use are usually proposed to be associated with trophic divergence. However, the use of classic dietary methods (e.g. stomach contents) is challenging in small mammals, particularly in community-level studies, thus we used stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) to infer about trophic niche. We investigated i) how trophic niche is partitioned among rodent and marsupial species in three Atlantic forest sites and ii) if interspecific body size and locomotor habit inequalities can constitute mechanisms under

SUBMITTER: Galetti M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4822875 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature