Dynamics and coexistence in a system with intraguild mutualism

It is a tenet of ecological theory that two competing consumers cannot stably coexist on a single limiting resource in a homogeneous environment. Many mechanisms and processes have since been evoked and studied, empirically and theoretically, to explain species coexistence and the observed biologica...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Assaneo, María Florencia, Coutinho, Renato Mendes, Lin, Yangchen, Mantilla, Carlos, Lutscher, Frithjof
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/195166
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/195166
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ALLEE EFFECT
COMPLEX DYNAMICS
FACILITATION
INTRAGUILD MUTUALISM
SPECIES COEXISTENCE
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:It is a tenet of ecological theory that two competing consumers cannot stably coexist on a single limiting resource in a homogeneous environment. Many mechanisms and processes have since been evoked and studied, empirically and theoretically, to explain species coexistence and the observed biological diversity. Facilitative interactions clearly have the potential to enhance coexistence. Yet, even though mutual facilitation between species of the same guild is widely documented empirically, the subject has received very little theoretical attention. Here, we study one form of intraguild mutualism in the simplest possibly community module of one resource and two consumers. We incorporate mutualism as enhanced consumption in the presence of the other consumers. We find that intraguild mutualism can (a) significantly enhance coexistence of consumers, (b) induce cyclic dynamics, and (c) give rise to a bi-stability (a 'joint' Allee effect) and potentially catastrophic collapse of both consumer species.