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The relative importance of spatial aggregation and resource partitioning on the coexistence of mycophagous insects
Author(s) -
Takahashi Kazuo H.,
Tuno Nobuko,
Kagaya Takashi
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
oikos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.672
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1600-0706
pISSN - 0030-1299
DOI - 10.1111/j.0030-1299.2005.13594.x
Subject(s) - guild , ecology , biology , persistence (discontinuity) , taxon , phylogenetic tree , community structure , lepidoptera genitalia , resource (disambiguation) , spatial heterogeneity , habitat , biochemistry , geotechnical engineering , gene , engineering , computer network , computer science
The relative importance of spatial aggregation and resource partitioning on coexistence was investigated for mycophagous insects in central Japan. The effects of spatial aggregation and resource partitioning were separated by a randomization procedure. From 124 patches of macrosporophores belonging to 37 species, 3275 individuals belonging to 14 families of Diptera and 11 individuals to Lepidoptera emerged. Since the level of identification varied among insect taxa, the analysis was made in three ways; 1) for all taxa to assess the stability of the whole community, 2) for drosophilid species to assess their persistence in the community, and 3) for species of Drosophila and Mycodrosophila to assess their persistence against congeneric and heterogeneric species. Both spatial aggregation and resource partitioning functioned for the stability of whole mycophagous insect community, and spatial aggregation played a more important role than resource partitioning. On the other hand, only spatial aggregation functioned for the persistence of drosophilid species in the community. According to the analysis on species of Drosophila and Mycodrosophila against congeneric and heterogeneric species, the relative importance of resource partitioning was smaller for the coexistence of within‐genus species pairs than for that of between‐genus species pairs. These results suggest that the relative importance of these two mechanisms depends on the phylogenetic and guild diversity of community.