Pulsed resource availability changes dietary niche breadth and partitioning between generalist rodent consumers.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the mechanisms that structure niche breadth and overlap between species is important for determining how species interact and assessing their functional role in an ecosystem. Without manipulative experiments, assessing the role of foraging ecology and interspecific competition in structuring diet is challenging. Systems with regular pulses of resources act as a natural experiment to investigate the factors that influence the dietary niches of consumers. We used natural pulses of mast-fruiting of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) to test whether optimal foraging or competition structure the dietary niche breadth and overlap between two congener rodent species (Peromyscus leucopus and P. maniculatus), both of which are generalist consumers. We reconstructed

SUBMITTER: Stephens RB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6787868 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature