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The effect of environmental uncertainty and diapause investment on the occurrence of specialist and generalist species
Author(s) -
FranchGras Lluis,
MonteroPau Javier,
Serra Manuel
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international review of hydrobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1522-2632
pISSN - 1434-2944
DOI - 10.1002/iroh.201301712
Subject(s) - generalist and specialist species , diapause , biology , ecology , biodiversity , investment (military) , habitat , larva , politics , political science , law
The evolution of specialist and generalist strategies is a central topic in ecology with strong implications for the biodiversity and structure of communities. Environmental unpredictability has been suggested as a key factor affecting the relative advantages of generalist species. However, life cycle features, like diapause, can also play a major role in the competitive dynamics between generalists and specialists. Zooplanktonic communities of continental waters are suitable models to study this; they inhabit water bodies that vary temporally with different degrees of uncertainty and rely on the production of diapause stages to survive across the year. We developed a simple theoretical model with three competing species, i.e. two specialists and one generalist with lower competitive capability than the specialists. We explore the effect of environmental unpredictability and diapause modes on the coexistence regime and on the evolution of diapause investment patterns. Our aim is to get insight into factors affecting the diversity of zooplankton over an ecological time scale. Our results show that environmental uncertainty and diapause investment are important factors affecting the competitive dynamics between generalists and specialists strategies. Generalist species are able to persist through a hundred of growing seasons due to the “protection effect” afforded by density‐dependent diapause investment, and can even exclude the specialists (52% of replicates). Priority effects (i.e. which species has its period of habitat suitability earlier) and cross‐induction of diapause investment also have an impact on the structure of zooplanktonic communities. Diapause investment patterns were studied for a specialist species. Patterns to spread the risks of environmental variability by a means of a continuous and early production of diapausing eggs evolved within a hundred growing seasons.