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Quantifying niche partitioning and multichannel feeding among tree squirrels

Food Webs, ISSN: 2352-2496, Vol: 21, Page: e00124
2019
  • 7
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 29
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 1
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    7
  • Captures
    29
  • Social Media
    1
    • Shares, Likes & Comments
      1
      • Facebook
        1

Article Description

Quantifying resource partitioning is central to community and food web ecology and of increasing interest in an era of rapid global change disrupting biotic interactions. Multichannel feeding – consuming resources from both green and brown food webs – can be a stabilizing force in communities. While multichannel feeding has been well-documented in invertebrate and aquatic systems, it has been relatively under-studied in terrestrial vertebrate populations. Applied ecologists are seeking approaches to assess niche partitioning and cryptic trophic pathways, like multichannel feeding, which have been difficult to quantify, especially among vertebrates. Using both bulk (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) and compound specific stable isotope ratios (δ 15 N glutamic acid and phenylalanine), we tested how three common and competing tree squirrel partition resources. Our complementary analyses revealed that squirrels partitioned niche space and, because of differences in multichannel foraging, possessed different trophic identities. While all squirrels consumed food items from green and brown food webs, their dependence on each differed, revealing an important, yet cryptic, mechanism behind apparent stable co-occurrence of these competitors. Our work supports multichannel feeding as a potential mechanism promoting coexistence in this guild of terrestrial vertebrates, and provides a framework to quantify resource partitioning in other ecological communities.

Bibliographic Details

Jonathan N. Pauli; Philip J. Manlick; Prarthana S. Dharampal; Yuko Takizawa; Yoshito Chikaraishi; Laura J. Niccolai; Jennifer A. Grauer; Kristina L. Black; Mario Garces Restrepo; Paula L. Perrig; Evan C. Wilson; Marie E. Martin; Mauriel Rodriguez Curras; Tiffany A. Bougie; Kimberly L. Thompson; Matthew M. Smith; Shawn A. Steffan

Elsevier BV

Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Environmental Science

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