Competition for safe real estate, not food, drives density-dependent juvenile survival in a large herbivore.

ABSTRACT: Density-dependent competition for food reduces vital rates, with juvenile survival often the first to decline. A clear prediction of food-based, density-dependent competition for large herbivores is decreasing juvenile survival with increasing density. However, competition for enemy-free space could also be a significant mechanism for density dependence in territorial species. How juvenile survival is predicted to change across density depends critically on the nature of predator-prey dynamics and spatial overlap among predator and prey, especially in multiple-predator systems. Here, we used a management experiment that reduced densities of a generalist predator, coyotes, and specialist predator, mountain lions, over a 5-year period to test for spatial density dependence mediated by predat

SUBMITTER: Hurley MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7319175 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature