Complex community-wide consequences of consumer sexual dimorphism.

ABSTRACT: Sexual dimorphism is a ubiquitous source of within-species variation, yet the community-level consequences of sex differences remain poorly understood. Here, we analyse a bitrophic model of two competing resource species and a sexually reproducing consumer species. We show that consumer sex differences in resource acquisition can have striking consequences for consumer-resource coexistence, abundance and dynamics. Under both direct interspecific competition and apparent competition between two resource species, sexual dimorphism in consumers' attack rates can mediate coexistence of the resource species, while in other cases can lead to exclusion when stable coexistence is typically expected. Slight sex differences in total resource acquisition also can reverse competitive outcomes and lead

SUBMITTER: De Lisle SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9314848 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature