Probst Remo, Probst Renate
Ornis-Biology Engineering Office and Research Institute, Dr. G. H. Neckheimstr. 18/3, A-9560 Feldkirchen, Austria.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Mar 8;13(6):981. doi: 10.3390/ani13060981.
Sympatric animals with similar requirements can separate their ecological niches along the microhabitat, food and time axes. There may be alternative reasons for an interspecific different activity pattern, such as intraspecific social constraints, predator avoidance or physical conditions such as temperature, precipitation and illumination. We investigated the importance of intraguild competition in a 2-year study in an inner-alpine mixed forest, using small forest rodents as our model species. mice were the physically superior, and bank voles, , the inferior competitor. We predicted that bank voles would exhibit increased diurnal activity when frequencies of the almost exclusively nocturnal mice were high during a seed mast year. To investigate this, we recorded 19,138 1 min videos. Controlling for confounding variables, bank vole diurnal activity was significantly related to the frequency of mice. We assume that at high densities of mice, a purely nocturnal separation in the niche dimensions of time, habitat and microhabitat is no longer sufficient, and therefore an inverse activity pattern by the bank voles is reinforced. Our videos showed, however, that this does not require persistent aggressive meetings and we explain this by the long co-evolution of the taxa under study.
具有相似需求的同域动物可以沿着微生境、食物和时间轴来分隔它们的生态位。种间不同的活动模式可能有其他原因，比如种内社会限制、躲避捕食者或诸如温度、降水和光照等物理条件。我们在阿尔卑斯山内部的混交林中进行了一项为期两年的研究，以小型森林啮齿动物作为我们的模式物种，调查了种内竞争的重要性。小鼠在身体上更具优势，而小林姬鼠是较弱的竞争者。我们预测，在种子大年期间，当几乎完全夜行性的小鼠的出现频率较高时，小林姬鼠的日间活动会增加。为了对此进行研究，我们记录了19138段1分钟的视频。在控制了混杂变量后，小林姬鼠的日间活动与小鼠的出现频率显著相关。我们假设，在小鼠高密度时，在时间、栖息地和微生境的生态位维度上单纯的夜行性分隔不再足够，因此小林姬鼠的反向活动模式得到加强。然而，我们的视频显示，这并不需要持续的攻击性相遇，我们用所研究分类群的长期共同进化来解释这一点。
