Trophic resource partitioning drives fine-scale coexistence in cryptic bat species.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the processes that enable species coexistence has important implications for assessing how ecological systems will respond to global change. Morphology and functional similarity increase the potential for competition, and therefore, co-occurring morphologically similar but genetically unique species are a good model system for testing coexistence mechanisms. We used DNA metabarcoding and high-throughput sequencing to characterize for the first time the trophic ecology of two recently described cryptic bat species with parapatric ranges, Myotis escalerai and Myotis crypticus. We collected fecal samples from allopatric and sympatric regions and from syntopic and allotopic locations within the sympatric region to describe the diets both taxonomically and functional

SUBMITTER: Novella-Fernandez R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7771180 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature