Tran Mark V, O'Grady Matthew, Colborn Jeremiah, Van Ness Kimberly, Hill Richard W
Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America; Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Mar 14;9(3):e91823. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091823. eCollection 2014.
The vertical zonation patterns of intertidal organisms have been topics of interest to marine ecologists for many years, with interspecific food competition being implicated as a contributing factor to intertidal community organization. In this study, we used behavioral bioassays to examine the potential roles that interspecific aggression and food competition have on the structuring of intertidal hermit crab assemblages. We studied two ecologically similar, sympatric hermit crab species, Clibanarius digueti [1] and Paguristes perrieri [2], which occupy adjacent zones within the intertidal region of the Gulf of California. During the search phase of foraging, C. digueti showed higher frequencies of aggressive behaviors than P. perrieri. In competition assays, C. digueti gained increased access to food resources compared to P. perrieri. The results suggest that food competition may play an important role in structuring intertidal hermit crab assemblages, and that the zonation patterns of Gulf of California hermit crab species may be the result of geographical displacement by the dominant food competitor (C. digueti).
潮间带生物的垂直分布模式多年来一直是海洋生态学家感兴趣的话题，种间食物竞争被认为是影响潮间带群落组织的一个因素。在本研究中，我们使用行为生物测定法来检验种间攻击和食物竞争对潮间带寄居蟹群落结构的潜在作用。我们研究了两种生态习性相似、同域分布的寄居蟹物种，即迪氏硬壳寄居蟹（Clibanarius digueti [1]）和佩氏异指寄居蟹（Paguristes perrieri [2]），它们占据了加利福尼亚湾潮间带区域内相邻的地带。在觅食的搜索阶段，迪氏硬壳寄居蟹表现出比佩氏异指寄居蟹更高频率的攻击行为。在竞争试验中，与佩氏异指寄居蟹相比，迪氏硬壳寄居蟹获得了更多获取食物资源的机会。结果表明，食物竞争可能在构建潮间带寄居蟹群落中发挥重要作用，并且加利福尼亚湾寄居蟹物种的分布模式可能是优势食物竞争者（迪氏硬壳寄居蟹）地理位移的结果。
