NDLI: The relative influence of competition and prey defences on the trophic structure of animalivorous bat ensembles

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Schoeman, M. Corrie Jacobs, David S.
Copyright Year	2010
Abstract	Deterministic filters such as competition and prey defences should have a strong influence on the community structure of animals like animalivorous bats which have life histories characterized by low fecundity, low predation risk, long life expectancy and stable populations. We investigated the relative influence of these two deterministic filters on the trophic structure of animalivorous bat assemblages in South Africa. We used null models to test if patterns of dietary overlap were significantly different from patterns expected by chance and multivariate analyses to test the correlations between diet and phenotype (body size, wing morphology and echolocation). We found little evidence that competition structured the trophic niche of coexisting bats. Contrary to predictions from competition, dietary overlap between bats of ensembles and functional groups (open-air, clutter-edge, and clutter foragers) were significantly higher than expected by chance. Instead, we found support for the predictions of the allotonic frequency hypothesis: there were significant relationships between peak echolocation frequency and the proportion of moths in the diets of bats at local and regional scales, and peak echolocation frequency was the best predictor of diet even after we controlled for the influence of body size and phylogeny. These results suggest that echolocation frequency and prey hearing exert more influence on the trophic structure of sympatric animalivorous bats than competition. Nonetheless, differential habitat use and sensory bias may also be major determinants of trophic structure because these are also correlated with frequencies of bat calls.
Starting Page	493
Ending Page	506
Page Count	14
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00298549
Journal	Oecologia
Volume Number	166
Issue Number	2
e-ISSN	14321939
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2010-12-03
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Allotonic frequency hypothesis Community structure Diet Ecomorphology Null models Plant Sciences Ecology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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