Nonadditive effects of consumption in an intertidal macroinvertebrate community are independent of food availability but driven by complementarity effects.

ABSTRACT: Suboptimal environmental conditions are ubiquitous in nature and commonly drive the outcome of biological interactions in community processes. Despite the importance of biological interactions for community processes, knowledge on how species interactions are affected by a limiting resource, for example, low food availability, remains limited. Here, we tested whether variation in food supply causes nonadditive consumption patterns, using the macroinvertebrate community of intertidal sandy beaches as a model system. We quantified isotopically labeled diatom consumption by three macroinvertebrate species (Bathyporeia pilosa, Haustorius arenarius, and Scolelepis squamata) kept in mesocosms in either monoculture or a three-species community at a range of diatom densities.

SUBMITTER: van Egmond EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5869218 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature