Interspecific interactions through 2 million years: are competitive outcomes predictable?

ABSTRACT: Ecological interactions affect the survival and reproduction of individuals. However, ecological interactions are notoriously difficult to measure in extinct populations, hindering our understanding of how the outcomes of interactions such as competition vary in time and influence long-term evolutionary changes. Here, the outcomes of spatial competition in a temporally continuous community over evolutionary timescales are presented for the first time. Our research domain is encrusting cheilostome bryozoans from the Wanganui Basin of New Zealand over a ca 2 Myr time period (Pleistocene to Recent). We find that a subset of species can be identified as consistent winners, and others as consistent losers, in the sense that they win or lose interspecific competitive encounters statistically mor

SUBMITTER: Liow LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5013793 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature