Costly neighbours: Heterospecific competitive interactions increase metabolic rates in dominant species.

ABSTRACT: The energy costs of self-maintenance (standard metabolic rate, SMR) vary substantially among individuals within a population. Despite the importance of SMR for understanding life history strategies, ecological sources of SMR variation remain only partially understood. Stress-mediated increases in SMR are common in subordinate individuals within a population, while the direction and magnitude of the SMR shift induced by interspecific competitive interactions is largely unknown. Using laboratory experiments, we examined the influence of con- and heterospecific pairing on SMR, spontaneous activity, and somatic growth rates in the sympatrically living juvenile newts Ichthyosaura alpestris and Lissotriton vulgaris. The experimental pairing had little influence on SMR and growth rates in the sma

SUBMITTER: Janca M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5507852 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature